Retail Rents Decline In Big U.S. Cities As Landlords Succumb To The Retail Storm

The retail storm pounding weaker real-estate markets is starting to lash America’s biggest cities. Malls in smaller cities have been suffering for years from store closures as retailers adjust their store footprints to changing consumption habits and rising online sales. Now retail rents in some of the priciest cities in the U.S. are falling back to earth after years of strong growth, as the retail reckoning spreads to properties once considered immune. Over the past 12 months, rents in New York, Washington and Boston declined between 0.4% and 1.4%, while rents were roughly flat in Chicago and San Francisco, according to data from CoStar Group, a commercial real estate data provider. Across the U.S., rent growth averaged 1.8% in 2017, down from 2.7% in 2016 and the slowest pace since 2012. Read more The Wall Street Journal.