Portland, San Francisco and Seattle off to a bad start

Metro level data for Q1 2023 showed the slowdown in occupier demand was widespread, with no market consistently outperforming across the sectors in terms of absorption. While office and industrial asking rents continued to grow, they did so at a slower rate. Meanwhile, apartment asking rents fell almost everywhere. The result is that capital values dropped in almost all metros and sectors. But the bigger picture is that at the all-property level, total returns fared the worst in Q1 in three West coast markets – San Francisco, Portland and Seattle – while the next worst were two of the major markets – Washington D.C. and Boston. We continue to expect western and Big 6 metros to underperform this year, with southern markets generally holding up better.