With the CARES Act benefits past the July 31st expiration, Congress is in talks of a second stimulus package to further the economy. The effects of COVID-19 are still unknown, but the U.S. market has seen improvement. RCA cited that commercial real estate transaction volumes steeped to $44.7 billion in Q2 2020. This marks the worst second-quarter performance since the Global Financial Crisis. However, 1.8 million jobs were adding in July, decreasing the overall pandemic’s loss to nearly 13 million jobs.
With millions out of work, consumer spending has dropped, and government spending has skyrocketed. Stock prices were elevated at the start of August after optimistic results from a COVID-19 vaccine trial, jobs report, and manufacturing activity. In our August 2020 Matthews™ Investor Outlook Survey, we found that 42.24 percent of respondents showed concern for the coronavirus impact on tenants, and 55.17 percent showed concern for the impact on CRE, an decrease of 9.28 and 6.25 percent, respectively, from July.
This report details the current state of the commercial real estate market sectors in August 2020.
