Commercial property prices took a step back in April, when some deals were halted as investors assessed the long-term economic fallout from worldwide tariffs imposed by the Trump administration.
Overall, deals still rose from a year earlier, according to the latest monthly CoStar Commercial Repeat-Sale Indices, which track when a previously sold property trades hands again in a process called a repeat sale. The indices also show how multifamily has led price gains over the past year.
The rise in April deals, particularly in property transactions with high dollar values, could help solidify a bottom in prices, if not clear the path for sustained growth, according to Chad Littell, national director of U.S. capital markets analytics for CoStar Group and author of the CCRSI report.
“The number of high-quality, or investment-grade, assets trading is increasing and thereby putting upward pressure on values, or at least finding a floor,” Littell said. “From 2022 to 2024, the higher the price point, the larger the pullback in sales activity. Since the top end retreated the most, it has recently experienced a bounce back as more capital flows into this segment.”
Repeat sales of high-dollar properties rated Class A and Class B rose 1.9% — $5.3 billion — in April from March, according to the indices. Looking back further illustrates a steeper rise in high-dollar transactions. These so-called investment-grade repeat sales of $22.2 billion for the first four months of 2025 were 39% higher than the same four months a year earlier.
Investment-grade properties are viewed as stable, promising consistent cash flow.
“An acute picture of repeat-sale price changes show that larger, higher-quality assets have recently seen greater price appreciation compared to smaller, lower-quality assets,” Littell said.
Multifamily boost
The trend is most notable in multifamily pricing, Littell added.
The CCRSI report includes a value-weighted index that reflects the high-dollar trades common in major cities, while an equal-weighted index tracks the more numerous, lower-priced property deals typical in small markets.
The value-weighted index is broken out into two parts, one for residential, namely multifamily, and the other for nonresidential.
The nonresidential subindex peaked in the summer of 2023. Prices have since fallen in 15 of the 20 months, with nonresidential prices down 5.1% from April 2024 to April this year.
By contrast, the multifamily index has increased year over year. Though prices peaked in the summer of 2022, declining sharply after the Federal Reserve raised interest rates in September of that year, prices have been rising steadily. The index has climbed in nine of the past 12 months. Year-over-year April to April, multifamily prices are up 4%.
“Multifamily is the leading indicator for the whole industry as it is the first property type to fall in a downturn, but also the first to rise in a recovery,” Littell said.
Both of the composite CCRSI price indices sank in April, the first time they have fallen in unison since February 2024. The value-weighted index, more heavily influenced by the high-dollar trades common in large markets, declined 1.4% over March. However, the index was up 0.4% over the 12 months.
The equal-weighted index, reflecting the more numerous but lower-priced property sales typical of small markets, dropped 0.9% in April from the prior month. For the year, the index has risen 1.2%.