Foot Traffic is Returning to CBDs
The bounce back in traffic from last year has been strongest over the breakfast and lunch time periods.
Rising inflation may be weighing consumer confidence, but one metric is getting stronger: shopper traffic in US downtowns.
Foot traffic in May ticked up to 27.8% below 2019 levels from 32% below pre-pandemic numbers in April, according to Springboard data. It’s the narrowest gap from 2019 since the onset of the pandemic, one driven primarily, it seems, by employees returning to the office.
The gap from the 2019 traffic level over the weekday period narrowed to -31.7% from -36.1% in April, while the difference between weekdays and the weekend stood at -15.7% in May, versus -18.5% in April and -21.7% in March. Foot traffic in downtowns also improved over all periods during the day last month, though the breakfast and lunch periods still remained wider than later in the day.
“On a positive note, however, during the daytime the bounce back from last year has been strongest over the breakfast and lunch time periods, indicating that the shift back to the office has accelerated over the past 12 months,” writes Springboard’s Diane Wehrle. Downtown traffic was nearly 60% higher in May 2022 than in May 2021, and 58.6% higher during the lunch period.
“Whilst a bounce back in downtown traffic from 2021 over the working day is evident, it still has a long way to go to catch up with the recovery during the evening period,” she says.
In a good omen for central business districts, research from Moody’s shows that there’s “little evidence” showing permanent moves away from urban areas, according to a new analysis from Moody’s Analytics REIS.
“CBD apartment demand appears more elastic than non-CBD markets, so the rebound was exceptionally fast in 2021. Apartment rents already exceed its pre-pandemic level for both CBD and non-CBD markets, driven by strong market fundamentals,” Moody’s analysts note.