After a summer slowdown, office foot traffic bounced back in September, signaling renewed momentum in the return-to-office movement. According to Placer.ai’s October 2025 Office Building Index recap, which tracks activity across 1,300 top-tier office buildings nationwide, visits were 26.3% below 2019 levels, nearly matching June’s performance and erasing August’s dip.
“As fall routines took hold, RTO momentum strengthened once again, underscoring the nonlinear yet sustained nature of office recovery progress,” the report said.
The September rebound was fueled in part by new return-to-office mandates that took effect last month. Companies including Intel and Toyota now require employees to be on-site at least four days per week, boosting overall office utilization. Calendar effects also contributed. September 2025 included 21 working days, compared with 20 in both September 2024 and 2019. Even after accounting for that shift, September ranked as the third-busiest month for office visits since the pandemic, trailing only June and July of this year.
Regional performance underscores how local dynamics continue to shape recovery trajectories. In Miami, ongoing corporate in-migration is reinforcing an “office-first” culture, while New York City is benefiting from a wave of finance-sector mandates that have increased weekday attendance.
Other markets also outperformed the national average. Dallas and Atlanta posted strong improvements, with office visit gaps just 15.4% and 22.9% below September 2019 levels, respectively.
Meanwhile, San Francisco continues to show signs of stabilization. The city recorded the largest year-over-year increase in office visits in September, narrowing its gap to 40.2% below pre-pandemic levels and outpacing several markets that recovered earlier. The report cited AI-driven demand and renewed corporate commitments as contributing factors. Salesforce, for instance, recently announced a multi-year investment in the city, reaffirming its confidence in San Francisco’s long-term role as a hub for innovation. The city’s municipal workers also returned to the office four days per week in late August, further reinforcing a culture of office attendance.
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