The first three quarters of 2021 set a record for commercial property sales activity while prices also reached new highs. A lot of uncertainty still hangs over the office and retail markets, while a full recovery in the hotel business could be years away. But purchases of apartment buildings, life-science labs and industrial properties helped propel commercial sales for the first nine months of this year to $462.1 billion, up 10% from the same nine-month period in 2019.
Home-price growth held at a record high in August, as demand from home buyers remained robust despite skyrocketing prices. The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller National Home Price Index, which measures average home prices in major metropolitan areas across the nation, rose 19.8% in the year that ended in August.
Modern Land (China), Co. a 21-year-old developer that focuses on green projects, failed to repay a $250 million dollar bond that matured Monday, adding to a string of missed payments by Chinese real-estate companies.
China Evergrande Group made an overdue interest payment of $83.5 million to international bondholders in an unexpected move that allows the property company to stave off a default on about $2.03 billion of dollar bonds.
Eviction filings in court were up 8.7% in September from August. But the rate is still low on a historic basis, and, at 36,796 filings, it is roughly half the average September rate pre-pandemic.
The number of workers returning to traditional office space has been edging higher since the week of Labor Day, when an average of 31% of the workforce was back in 10 major cities. The average hit 36% during the week that ended Oct. 8, a new high during the pandemic period.
The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller National Home Price Index, which measures average home prices in major metropolitan areas across the U.S., rose 19.7% in the year that ended in July, the highest annual rate of price growth since the index began in 1987.
Gun maker Smith & Wesson Brands Inc. is moving its corporate headquarters from Massachusetts to Tennessee, joining other firearms manufacturers that have moved from the mid-Atlantic and Northeast to Southern states with less restrictive gun laws. The company will invest more than $125 million to relocate its headquarters.
Overall, publicly traded U.S. companies own land and buildings valued at $1.64 trillion. That is up 38% from 10 years ago, and the highest for at least the past 10 years.