Chicago & Midwest + Downtown + Finance | February 13, 2023

Chicago Commercial Property Values Inched Up to New High in 2022

Despite soaring inflation, rising interest rates and sliding financial markets, an index of Chicago commercial property values compiled by MSCI Real Assets rose 2.8% to a new high in 2022. While that’s down from a 22.5% increase in 2021, any increase is positive news in the current market, Crain’s Chicago Business reported.

It’s hard to know where property values will settle out, but MSCI’s Chicago index began heading down in the fourth quarter, declining 0.5%, in line with MSC’s global index of property values. Given how the market has changed over the past year, Jim Costello, head of real estate economics at MSCI, puts more weight on the Q4 figure than the annual one.

“I think that’s a more salient indicator of what’s happening,” he told Crain’s.

The volume of commercial property sales in the Chicago area fell to $11.4 billion last year, down 11.9% year-over-year, according to MSCI.

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Inside The Story

MSCI's Costello

About Paul Bubny

Paul Bubny serves as Senior Content Director for Connect Commercial Real Estate, a role to which he brings 13-plus years’ experience covering the commercial real estate industry and 30-plus years in business-to-business journalism. In this capacity, he oversees daily operations while also reporting on both local/regional markets and national trends, covering individual transactions across all property types, as well as delving into broader subject matter. He produces 15-20 daily news stories per day and works with the Connect team and clients to develop longer-form content, ranging from Q&As to thought-leadership pieces. Prior to joining Connect, Paul was Managing Editor for both Real Estate Forum and GlobeSt.com at American Lawyer Media, where he oversaw operations at both publications while also producing daily news and feature-length articles. His tenure in B2B publishing stretches back into the print era, and he has served as Editor in Chief on four national trade publications. Since 1999, Paul has volunteered as the newsletter editor of passenger rail advocacy groups (one national, one local).