- Los Angeles barely squeezed past London to reach the no. 2 spot in sales volume in the first quarter of 2016.
- New York, L.A., San Francisco, South Florida, Washington D.C. and Chicago all made the top ten.
- Houston also made the top 20, enjoying continued growth since last year.
New York City is a behemoth relative to the most of the world, especially when it comes to real estate. The Big Apple totaled $14,299,661,253 in sales volume in the first quarter of 2016 — nearly double its closest competitor worldwide.
The data comes from Real Capital Analytics (RCA), a privately-held international data and analytics firm that calculated the results based on the 30 largest world markets by sales volume in the first quarter.
“The first quarter investment volumes show New York remains the biggest real estate market in the world, but in a change from the pattern established since the end of the financial crisis, L.A. has leapfrogged London to take second place,” Tom Leahy, director of market analysis at RCA, said in a press release.
Due to the changing global economic landscape, investors seem a bit more conservative in real estate overseas. London, previously in second position, was pushed out by Los Angeles thanks to L.A.’s strong first quarter. South Florida also made some noise in top 10, beating out Hong Kong for the no. 5 spot.
That’s not to say things are plateauing elsewhere: International cities Tokyo, Berlin and Paris all exceeded $2 billion in total sales volume. And four U.S. cities rounded out the top 10, with Washington D.C. nipping at the heels on Hong Kong and Denver continuing its strong push from 2015.
Although the third-largest city in the country in population, Chicago was tenth on the list and finished eighth out of U.S. Markets. The Windy City brought in nearly less than half of L.A.’s sales volume in the first quarter of 2016 and less than a quarter of NYC’s.
List of top 10 markets by sales volume
Domestic markets pepper the list
Out of the top 30 markets in the world, 20 of them are located in the United States.
L.A.’s movement into the second spot is attributed to foreign investment, according to the list makers. Besides the appeal of L.A.’s aesthetic, there is a diverse local economy and workforce provides for continued and stable growth.
“But even a place like LA does well, and particularly with investors from Asia,” Jim Costello, senior vice-president of Real Capital Analytics, said in a statement. “The leading cross-border buyers for U.S. commercial real estate are Canadians, and LA is no different.”
South Florida and Houston have enjoyed continued growth since last year. Miami alone has 24 skyscrapers in development at the moment, with the second-largest development in the country having broke ground just this past month.
It was speculated in early 2016 that dropping oil prices would slow production in Houston, but movement overall is turning up. Houston’s sales volume was $1,669,367,662, just after Philadelphia in the 19th spot. Austin also made the list, gaining $1,335,085,952 in Q1 for a no. 24 ranking.
