In June, Boston emerged as the top city in the United States for year-over-year growth in workers returning to the office. According to data from Placer.ai, which tracked foot traffic in commercial office buildings across major metro areas, Boston saw a 10.3 percentage point increase – surpassing the national average of 5.3%. Following closely behind are Atlanta, Miami, Chicago and New York.
Despite this progress, foot traffic in Boston’s office buildings was still 32% below pre-pandemic levels from June 2019. The national average decline is slightly lower at 29.4%, with Miami reporting the lowest decrease at only 9.8%. However, New York stands out with high return-to-office rates driven by Wall Street mandates while San Francisco lags behind with only a meager return rate of just under half (49%).
The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly altered traditional work patterns and resulted in lower sale prices for office spaces and reduced valuations across major cities like Boston where new construction projects have also slowed down.
The article “Boston Leads Return-to-Office Growth” originally appeared on Connect CRE.
