More than eight years of annual increases in the average sales prices for retail and apartment properties are likely to end in 2019, even if the U.S. economy dodges a recession to reach its longest expansion, CoStar analysts said in a webinar forecasting trends for the coming year.
Deepening pain from retailer bankruptcies and store closings, combined with recent increases in interest rates and more apartments coming on the market, could contribute to declines in the average sale prices of retail and multifamily property in the coming year, said CoStar Senior Consultant Andrew Rybczynski.
The price decline was among more than two dozen predictions offered by CoStar's analytics teams on the economy, capital markets and U.S. real estate property markets for the coming year. Michael Cohen, CoStar's vice president of advisory services, said 85 percent of his group’s forecasts turned out to be correct last year, including predictions that construction costs and project delays would increase this year and e-commerce would contribute heavily to demand for logistics and other ind
ustrial properties.
