Rents Rise While Unemployment Dips: CRESCO Q2 Cleveland MarketBeat Report Available

Rents keep going up. That’s obviously good if you own real estate. It’s also a good indicator of our local economy too. But, rents would climb even more in Greater Cleveland, but for serious workforce challenges.

How do we know? Every quarter we do a market updates for our office and industrial clients call “Market Beats.”  Our Q2 Industrial and Office reports are now available.

Fundamentally strong economic indicators in the Northeast Ohio region are fueling modest increases in rent, according to research data we’ve assembled here at Cushman & Wakefield | CRESCO. And the forecast for Q3 shows a steady market with continued decrease in vacancies.  We’re not alone; we’re closely mirroring national trends.

High consumer demand allows businesses to increase prices and accommodate rising rents for business growth. Industrial market vacancy rate in the second quarter of 2018 remained steady at 3.5% as average asking rates increased to $4.44 per square foot (psf), helping drive a steady climate of new construction in the area.

But, the good news is the bad news: Our very low unemployment rates—especially in high demand sectors like tech—make it very hard to hire, and it’s keeping businesses from growing.  Though Cleveland lags slightly behind the rest of the nation in its unemployment rate, a 15.7% decrease in overall unemployment vs Q2 2017 has helped create an increase in consumer demand for most businesses in the area. That pushes wages up (good for workers), sure, but also increases costs for the things we use every day like gas (good for Texans).

Check out our the full Q2 Industrial and Office Market Beat reports:

Q2 Cleveland Industrial Market Beat Research report

Q2 Cleveland Office Market Beat Research report