Bay Area ranks as the best commercial real estate market in the country, again

Blanca Torres

Reporter-San Francisco Business Times

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For the second year in a row, the Bay Area ranked as the best market for commercial real estate in the country, according to a report from the Wells Fargo Economics Group.

The report found that the Bay Area’s strong gains in employment, housing inventory and technology sector push the Bay Area far ahead of other markets in terms of increasing value and potential for more growth.

“The San Francisco Bay Area remains the epicenter of many of the most rapidly growing technology sectors, including mobile devices, social media, cloud computing, data analytics and life sciences,” the report states. “Overall job and income growth have significantly outpaced the nation in recent years and the unemployment rate has fallen to its lowest level in nearly six years.”

The report demonstrates the tight relationship between jobs and real estate, pointing to deals like Salesforce.comleasing 714,000 square feet in an office tower under construction. That tower will eventually house thousands of jobs, many of them yet to be created, and Salesforce is just one of numerous tech companies expanding in the Bay Area.

The Wells Fargo report provides detailed analysis of the Bay Area’s submarkets of San Francisco, the Peninsula, Silicon Valley and the East Bay. Here’s a sampling of highlights:

Some industries like financial services are shrinking like in the case of San Francisco-basedCharles Schwab & Co. deciding to move 1,000 jobs out of San Francisco to places like Colorado and Texas.