The Index considers a quarterly change "flat" if it is less than1%. The average sales price in the CBD office sector was down 1.1%from the fourth quarter to $214.82 per sf. Retail experienced thesecond largest decline, falling 0.92% to $121.10 per sf. Next inline was the suburban office sector, off 0.82% from the fourthquarter to $181.51 per sf, followed by the warehouse market, off0.07% to $45.05 per sf.

Despite the drop in most markets, year-over-year the averageprice remains well ahead of the pace. The apartment market iswinning that race, remaining up 6.66% from the first quarter of2000, followed by suburban office (+6.64%), CBD office (+5.24%),Warehouse (+2.73%) and retail (+0.34%).

As far as leasing rates go, the NREI reports that first quarter2001 rents for CBD and suburban office properties have increasedmore than 6% compared to 12 months ago, the biggest annual gains ofthe six property sectors analyzed. Conversely, during the lastthree months, these two property types suffered the biggestdeclines in average rents.