Manhattan the priciest commercial market in the US: report

Manhattan is the most expensive market for commercial real estate, both in sales price per square foot and volume, according to a new second-quarter 2014 report and graphic from Real Capital Analytics and Transwestern.

Manhattan was among a number of areas in West and East Coast markets that outperformed inland cities, according to the report. Such spots benefit from long-established markets with supply constraint, growth limits and mature business communities that continually attract a large amount of both domestic and international capital.

Commercial real estate transactions in Manhattan averaged $770 per square foot in the second quarter of 2014, topping runner-up Washington, D.C. with $548 per square foot and San Francisco with $464 per square foot. San Jose came in fourth with transactions averaging $412 per square foot, while Boston rounded out the top five at $332 per square foot.

In terms of price by volume, Manhattan topped the charts at $11.2 billion, followed by Los Angeles at $5.1 billion and San Francisco at $5 billion. Boston ($4.1 billion) and Chicago ($2.9 billion) rounded out the top five.

In a top-ten ranking by number of transactions, however, Manhattan played second fiddle to Los Angeles, which had a total of 172 transactions in the second quarter. Manhattan came in with 107, followed by Boston with 95, Dallas with 87 and Chicago with 73. [Transwestern] — Julie Strickland