New data from MSCI suggests a shift in the post-pandemic performance hierarchy among major commercial property types, with office assets beginning to stabilize while industrial and apartments cool from earlier highs. The firm’s Q2 2026 Real Capital Analytics Commercial Property Price Index tracks changes in property values to illustrate market direction, rather than absolute pricing, across U.S. sectors.
Office, which has trailed other asset classes since the pandemic amid elevated vacancies and concerns about long-term demand, is now showing measured improvement. MSCI reported that its office price index rose 2.2% year over year. Suburban office assets led the sector, posting a 3% annual increase, while central business district properties recorded a 1.2% gain.
Those gains come against a backdrop of substantial value erosion in urban cores. MSCI noted that CBD office prices remain about 50% below their March 2022 peak. By comparison, suburban office values are roughly 15% below their July 2022 high. The gap between CBD and suburban performance highlights the sector’s bifurcation, as investors differentiate sharply between locations and asset types within the broader office category.
Industrial properties, which had been among the strongest performers in recent years, showed signs of slowing. The industrial index fell 0.4% year over year, a notable reversal from the 7.5% annual growth rate recorded in June 2024. Still, momentum appeared to be stabilizing on a quarterly basis: pricing moved from a 0.7% decline in Q4 2025 to a 0.1% increase in the second quarter of 2026.
Apartment pricing continued to soften amid moderating rent growth and new supply in several markets. According to MSCI, the apartment index was down 1.7% year over year in June, marking the tenth straight month of annual price declines. On a quarter-over-quarter basis, apartment prices fell 1.2%, equal to a 4.8% annualized decline.
Retail performance remained mixed. Retail asset prices were down 0.1% from a year earlier, representing the sixth consecutive month of annual declines. However, quarterly results were more constructive, with prices rising 1.4% from the prior quarter, an annualized pace of 5.7%.
Across property types, MSCI found that secondary and tertiary markets generally outperformed major urban centers, and that performance within sectors such as office remains uneven. The firm indicated that second-quarter trends point to a potential shift in investor attitudes toward office assets, with pricing suggesting that some investors see the sector as having worked through the worst of its repricing, even as challenges persist.
