Q2 2026 U.S. office market overview

The U.S. office market continues to improve, but the recovery is becoming increasingly selective. Shrinking inventory and declining availability point to a healthier market overall, yet demand remains concentrated in the highest-quality assets and strongest locations. As a result, performance is diverging across both asset classes and geographies, with trophy/class A buildings commanding growing rent premiums and a handful of markets approaching or exceeding pre-pandemic leasing levels while others continue to lag. Rather than a broad-based recovery, today's office market is characterized by improving fundamentals alongside widening differences in performance across the country.
80%

Share of U.S. office markets that saw supply decrease since 2024

Office inventory has contracted in most tracked markets since 2024, largely driven by conversions, demolitions, and adaptive reuses of obsolete class B/C assets. This has contributed to lowering availability and improved health across many markets. 

A smaller group of Sun Belt markets, including Nashville, Miami, and Tampa, have moved in the opposite direction, adding inventory as new trophy development comes online.

50%

Average trophy/class A rent premium in major markets

The bifurcation between trophy/class A and class B office space continues to widen across major U.S. markets. Trophy/class A assets command an average rent premium of approximately 50% over class B, while availability gaps increasingly separate higher-quality space from the broader market. 

Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston exhibit the strongest bifurcation, with wide gaps in both pricing and availability. In contrast, markets like Chicago and Washington, D.C. show significant differences in availability despite more modest rent premiums.

-21%

U.S. leasing activity below pre-COVID averages

Rolling four-quarter leasing volume remains 21% below the 2015–2019 average nationally, though recovery has become increasingly market specific. 

Manhattan and San Francisco have returned to or exceeded pre-pandemic leasing levels, while Chicago, Houston, and Washington, D.C. continue to trail historical norms by roughly 35–40%. 

The widening dispersion in leasing activity highlights an increasingly uneven recovery across U.S. office markets.

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