From New York to San Francisco, an unprecedented crisis in the United States
Decryption – The refusal of employees to return to the traditional way of working before the Covid pandemic continues. For the US office real estate market, the prospects for recovery are not good.
The office real estate crisis in the United States is unprecedented. Although the country did not experience a recession in 2023, as many feared, the office building occupancy rate is still the lowest in at least forty years. An average of 20% of space is vacant at the start of 2024.
The prospects of recovery are not good. One of the main causes of the disaster does not seem to be disappearing anytime soon: it is the persistent refusal of employees to return to the traditional way of working before the Covid pandemic. Millions of Americans are accustomed to seeing their colleagues, their cubicles, and their coffee machines only three to four days a week at best, and often less. Their employers may increase incentives to return, or even allow them, but many campuses and corporate buildings remain deserted on Mondays and Fridays.
The company Placer.ai produces edited statistics on…