Property Prices Fell To Start Quarter, but Signs of Improvement Emerge

The start of the second quarter did little to reverse the slide in commercial property prices in the past year or so, but small signs of improvement emerged.

While CoStar Group’s U.S. composite price indices fell in April, transaction activity picked up, the average deal size increased and the amount of time properties stayed on the market began to shrink.

All are indicators that suggest liquidity may be returning to the market, according to CoStar’s Commercial Repeat-Sale Indices that track when a previously sold property trades hands again in a process called a repeat sale...