6 Safe Havens for Commercial Real Estate As Markets Like Austin and San Francisco Plummet

With interest rates high and financing hard to come by, there are a lot of doomsday predictions around office towers, multifamily apartments, and other commercial real estate. 

But just as the pandemic led to a wave of migration from overpopulated cities to the Sunbelt, today's real estate market also has a mix of winners and losers.

To better understand the state of the commercial real estate market, look no further than a recent credit-reporting agency Moody's report. Not surprisingly, it found that tech hubs like San Francisco are suffering, as are pandemic darlings like Austin, Texas. But Moody's second-quarter 2023 report released last month also reveals plenty of safe havens for commercial real estate investors, including some unexpected places like Albany, New York, Hartford, Connecticut, and Toledo, Ohio.

Moody's analysis is based on a quarterly assessment that grades each market from 0 to 100 for each asset class, such as apartments, hotels, or industrial warehouses. Each score is then averaged together to create a composite market score of 0-100, indicating the market's overall health.