US commercial property prices grew 7.3% year-over-year in December, according to the latest RCA CPPI: US summary report.

But if you dig a little deeper, you'll see that apartment and industrial drove the gains. The industrial sector, which posted the largest annual increase of any property type, grew 0.6% in December and rose 8.8% year-over-year. The pace of growth in the sector declined modestly from previous months. Prices increased 0.9% for apartments in December, while annual gains hit 8.3%.

Despite strong industrial sales, cap rates remained flat at 6.0% from Q4 1029 to Q4 2020, according to The RCA Hedonic Series. Apartment cap rates fell 20 basis points year-over-year to 5.1%. Warehouse cap rates were 5.9%, which was lower than the 6.0% reached in Q1'20. The retail sector, which underperformed other property types in 2020, was the only index to post a negative annual return in December, dropping 4.3%. Despite uncertainty about return-to-work trends, office prices increased into year-end, up 1.5% from a year ago. RCA noted that this marked "a petering out of the price growth seen before Covid-19 struck."