Crexi National Commercial Real Estate Report: September 2025

Key Takeaways

• Retail assets hit a record high in sold pricing on Crexi, rising nearly 15% year-over-year, as investors doubled down on grocery-anchored and necessity-based centers. This segment continues to show the strongest liquidity in commercial real estate.
• Office transactions increasingly center on Class A assets, with higher-quality buildings driving most of the year’s price gains. Asking prices have softened from 2024 highs, but stronger effective lease rates reveal that tenants and buyers are favoring premium, well-located space over outdated assets.
• Industrial performance shows a market in transition, as prices climb from late-2024 lows while new construction tapers sharply. Vacancy has risen with record completions, yet demand remains supported by manufacturing reshoring, logistics reconfiguration, and steady e-commerce activity.
• Multifamily continues its streak of price increases, with both asking and sold values climbing for seven consecutive months. Even as national rents plateau, buyers remain confident in stabilized assets, reflecting the sector’s enduring appeal amid housing affordability challenges.
• The Federal Reserve’s September rate cut provides cautious optimism, signaling potential easing in financing conditions heading into 2026. Across sectors, investor sentiment has shifted from defense to selective pursuit, favoring stabilized income properties with durable tenant demand.

Retail

For Sale

Pricing: The median sold price for retail properties reached $220.23 per square foot in September 2025, marking a 5.53% increase month-over-month and a 14.91% rise year-over-year. This represents an all-time high for closed retail transactions on Crexi, reflecting renewed buyer confidence and strong capital flow into stabilized assets. Meanwhile, the median asking price rose to $263.22 per square foot, and appear to be turning a corner in the third quarter as sellers adjust expectations to align more closely with sustained buyer demand. The gap between asking and sold pricing remains modest, highlighting ongoing competition for high-quality retail properties, particularly in grocery-anchored and essential retail categories.

Cap Rates: Median sale cap rates fell to 6.55%, down 6 basis points month-over-month and 13 basis points year-over-year, while asking caps declined to 6.43%, falling 3 basis points from August and 7 basis points from a year ago. Both sale and asking cap rates have trended downward since early 2025, reflecting confidence in retail’s income stability and investor preference for inflation-resistant sectors.

Days on Market: Retail properties averaged 153 days on market in September 2025, marking a 2% increase from August but a 5.56% decrease compared to the same period last year. The modest month-over-month rise suggests a seasonal slowdown in transaction activity, while the annual improvement underscores stronger liquidity relative to 2024. Investors remain active in pursuing stable, income-generating assets despite ongoing economic uncertainty, with retail proving among the most stable investments this year.

For Lease

Asking vs. Effective Lease Rates: Asking and effective rent trends were steady to slightly firmer. The continued gap between asking and effective reflects targeted concessions that are concentrated outside of top corridors; well-trafficked pads and end-caps are seeing limited giveaways.

The Big Picture

Retail demand remains underpinned by consumer spending. The U.S. Census advance report for August 2025 shows sales growth continuing at a measured pace, supporting tenant revenues and helping landlords hold the line on concessions. In addition to steady demand, financing conditions improved slightly after the Federal Reserve cut the policy rate by 25 bps on September 17, 2025, the first reduction since December 2024.

Furthermore, it’s worth noting that tariffs and inventory strategies continue to shape outcomes. The NRF/Hackett Global Port Tracker expects 2025 U.S. import volumes to finish down roughly 3–6% from 2024 as retailers trim or re-time orders during policy shifts. On the other hand, wholesalers and retailers have been drawing down inventories into late summer, which helps reduce discounting pressure heading into the holiday season.

Office

For Sale

Pricing: The median sold price for office properties rose to $173.71 per square foot, up 1.87% month-over-month and 14.56% year-over-year, as higher-quality assets continue to dominate transaction activity. Asking prices declined to $217.41 per square foot, down 0.78% from August and 9.32% below last year’s level, following a peak in 2024 and steady declines as Class A space is absorbed. This pattern highlights that the office deals closing today are for amenitized, desirable properties with stable occupancy and income streams.

Cap Rates: Sale caps edged down to 7.35%, decreasing 5 basis points month-over-month and 20 basis points year-over-year, while asking caps ticked slightly higher to 7.08%. The divergence underscores ongoing price discovery as investors demand premiums for lower-quality buildings while core office trades compress slightly.

Days on Market: Office listings averaged 234 days on market, a 1.68% monthly decline but a 9.35% increase year-over-year, illustrating slow but steady improvement in deal velocity.

For Lease

Asking vs. Effective Lease Rates: Effective lease rates have continued to rise relative to asking rents as tenants commit to well-amenitized buildings. The gains reflect a higher share of closed deals within Class A properties, consistent with a broader flight-to-quality trend.

The Big Picture

Office fundamentals remain bifurcated. Conversions and demolitions are now outpacing new construction, removing tens of millions of square feet from inventory and slowly stabilizing availability in some submarkets. National vacancy remains elevated at ~19.00% per Crexi Intelligence, though the quality segment is stabilizing as more firms consolidate footprints. 

The Fed’s recent rate cut offers slight relief to borrowers, though officials are balancing labor-market softness and sticky inflation, which suggests a measured path ahead. Credit also remains selective, keeping pressure on owners with near-term loan maturities.

Industrial

For Sale

Pricing: The median sold price for industrial assets was $107.56 per square foot, down 2.57% month-over-month but up 8.31% year-over-year, while the median asking price climbed to $119.67 per square foot, up 2.76% monthly and 9.05% annually. Asking prices bottomed out in October 2024 and have risen steadily since, signaling stabilization as the market works through the supply from last year’s construction surge.

Cap Rates: Sale cap rates rose slightly to 7.13%, up 6 basis points month-over-month, while asking caps increased to 7.30%, up 1 basis point. The minor uptick reflects selective pricing on older inventory as modern distribution space continues to trade at premium valuations.

Days on Market: Industrial properties averaged 237 days on market, down 1.25% month-over-month but up 6.76% from the previous year, indicating more drawn-out negotiations yet sustained buyer demand.

For Lease

Asking vs. Effective Lease Rates: Asking rents continued to plateau while effective rents improved slightly, indicating concessions are largely targeted to backfill older small-bay or deep secondary assets. Newer big-box space with strong labor and transport access shows firmer economics.

The Big Picture

Industrial fundamentals remain strong despite normalization. Vacancy rose to 22% in September 2025 on Crexi amid record completions, but construction starts have fallen nearly 60% year-over-year. Meanwhile, rent growth remains positive in core logistics hubs as demand from manufacturing reshoring and e-commerce fulfillment persists. Tariff-related shipping adjustments are prompting logistics operators to rework routes and inventory cycles, extending some transaction timelines but keeping investor interest solid.

Multifamily

For Sale

Pricing: The median sold price for multifamily assets increased to $204.49 per square foot, up 0.84% from August but slightly down 0.76% year-over-year. Asking prices reached $175.98 per square foot, gaining 0.59% monthly and 5.43% annually, with both asking and sold pricing rising consistently for seven straight months since March 2025.

Cap Rates: Sale cap rates remained steady at 6.36%, while asking caps edged up to 7.23%, extending a yearlong upward trend. The continued gap between sale and asking cap rates underscores investor confidence in stabilized, well-located properties even amid broader repricing.

Days on Market: Multifamily assets averaged 164 days on market, up 6.49% from August and 10.07% annually, reflecting slightly slower deal pacing but sustained activity compared with other property types.

The Big Picture

National rent growth cooled again in September, down by about 0.4% with multiple trackers reporting a modest monthly decline as the market enters the seasonal slow period and absorbs peak deliveries. In addition to the near-term softness, lenders remain selective, but the Fed’s September cut provides a small tailwind for debt costs that may support more transaction flow later this year.

Complementing these findings, demand remains resilient in markets with strong job growth, household formation, and constrained single-family affordability. As 2025 deliveries crest and starts pull back, the supply picture should improve into 2026, which would help stabilize vacancies and support rent trends. Investors are focusing on workforce housing and well-located garden assets where operating fundamentals are holding up despite slower rent gains.

Regional Breakdown: Median Cap Rates & Changes MoM by Top MSAs – September 2025

Disclaimer: This article's information is based on Crexi's internal marketplace data and additional external sources. While asking price in many ways reflects market conditions, variations in pricing are affected by changes in inventory, asset size, etc. Nothing contained on this website is intended to be construed as investing advice. Any reference to an investment's past or potential performance should not be construed as a recommendation or guarantee towards a specific outcome.

Get more data-driven insights with Crexi Intelligence.