In September, the commercial real estate market recorded another best month of the year, according to the Northeast Tennessee Association of Realtors (NETAR) monthly Commercial Real Estate Report.

Transactions were 24% higher than September last year, and the commercial inventory increased 23.3 % from August to 856 listings. The nine-month transaction total lagged behind the previous year’s performance by 23 sales and leases while there are 102 fewer listings.

“Transactions were a little softer than August, but the market landscape continues improving,” said Cassie Petzoldt, chair of the NETAR Commercial Committee. “Traffic also increased. The office sector continues to be active, and there is increasing land sales activity.”

According to the combined total for NETAR’s Commercial Multiple Listing System (CMLS) and FLEXMLS, Tri-Cities commercial sales and leases totaled 31, up from 25 for the same time last year.  Listings in CMLS were up 53% from August.  The most active CMLS new listing sectors were vacant land, office space, and retail-commercial.  

Office transactions are performing 29.5% better than the first nine months of last year. Vacant land sales are up 22.2%. The remaining sectors drop below last year’s performance, with the hardest-hit sector being multi-family down 80%, followed by retail-commercial down 43.8%, and shopping center down 31.3%. There were 856 commercial listings last month compared to 694 in August.

NETAR’s Commercial Real Estate Trends Report capsules market conditions in Carter, Greene, Hawkins, Johnson, Sullivan, Unicoi, and Washington counties in NE TN and Scott, Lee, Washington, and Wise counties in SW VA.