As offices empty out, CRE picture looks bleak
March 30, 2020 | Lynn David | American Banker
Similar to the 2008 financial crisis, commercial real estate values could take a hit, fueling the current crisis but for a new reason: working from home.
Before millions of U.S. workers were sent home in recent weeks due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there were 3.4 million full-time employees who reported that they primarily worked from home in 2017, according to a recent study by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. That figure represented 3% of the workforce in 2017, a spike from 1.2% in 2005, when working from home started to pick up.
Even if there was a modest continuation of 2% of full-time employees (FTE) working remotely for the next 24 months, that’s 2.6 million people, based on the latest 130.6 million FTE, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
