By Joshua Burd
Investor demand for industrial buildings in New Jersey has held steady in recent months, thanks in large part to a boost in deals involving smaller properties.
Those are among the findings of a recent report by CommercialEdge, which analyzed the market’s performance in the Garden State and across the U.S. through October 2022. The study found that the median sale price in New Jersey was $10.1 million year to date, incorporating data from more than 150 industrial transactions.
Consequently, the state’s sales volume reached $2.87 billion to that point, the seventh-highest in the country.
“New Jersey was also one of the few markets where total sales volume did not fall year-over-year in the third quarter,” CommercialEdge wrote in its report. “Unlike other markets with comparable volume, New Jersey is not boosted by massive transaction figures from a few properties, but rather has seen numerous sales of smaller properties.”
The U.S. recorded $71.9 billion in industrial sales during the first 10 months of 2022, the report found. Overall sales volume began to slow in the second half of the year after growth in the first two quarters of 2022, thanks to rapid rise of interest rates, although investors are still hungry for well-positioned assets.
New Jersey’s $2.87 billion sales volume trailed several West Coast markets, even as rents in the state had grown 7.2 percent through October, resulting in average rates of $9.03 per square foot. CommercialEdge said New Jersey is especially primed for further rent growth due to heightened activity at the Port of New York and New Jersey.
