People are steadily and increasingly returning to office buildings as of June – at least in New York City, Boston, Chicago, and San Francisco, where Placer.ai reported the latest numbers.
Compared to last year, office buildings are bustling. Visits were up in major cities: New York City (54.4% increase), Chicago (38.3%), San Francisco (84.6%) and Boston (31.2%), which indicates that the office return is still underway.
Although the growth in YoY office visits appears to be leveling, this is likely more a reflection of the increase in office foot traffic throughout the first half of 2021 than of any real downward trend, writes Placer.ai's Bracha Arnold.
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Month-over-month, visits were up in each city in June compared to May, with visits jumping 17% in NYC, 7.6% in Chicago, 19.3% in SF, and 5.1% in Boston.
The report suggested that as gas prices have begun to trend downward and COVID restrictions are all but gone, workplace traffic should continue to increase.
However, the unpredictability of a COVID surge combined with potentially persistent inflation and skyrocketing fuel costs could throw trends off balance.
Well Short of Pre-Pandemic Traffic
Meanwhile, if buildings hope to get back to pre-pandemic visit levels, there's a way to go because compared to June 2019, visits in June were still down considerably in NYC (-33.5%), Chicago (-40.9%), SF (-60.4%), and Boston (-24.6%).
Placer.ai's indexes analyze foot traffic data from nearly 250 office buildings (53 in San Francisco, 72 in Manhattan, 50 in Boston, and 65 in Chicago).
They only include commercial office buildings and commercial office buildings on the first floor (like an office building that might include a national coffee chain on the ground floor). They do not include mixed-use buildings that are both residential and commercial.
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