Inland Empire sales signal
- JP Roach flagged positive Inland Empire signals: $381.6 million in sales, falling vacancy, and positive absorption. - The post framed these metrics as evidence of a nascent recovery after a rough stretch. - Aggregate transaction and absorption activity suggests selective demand is returning to the IE, useful for underwriting and prospecting (x.com).
Industrial sales in California’s Inland Empire reached $381.6 million in the first quarter of 2026 as vacancy edged down and net absorption turned positive. (thebrokerlist.com) That $381.6 million figure appeared in a Q1 2026 market write-up republishing NAI Capital research. The same report said vacancy fell 20 basis points from 9.0% to 8.8%, while net absorption — the amount of space newly occupied minus space vacated — rose to 2.8 million square feet. (thebrokerlist.com) Leasing volume in the quarter reached 12.5 million square feet, up 7.3% from the prior quarter but down 25.2% from Q1 2025. Average asking rent fell to $0.95 per square foot, triple net, down 4.0% quarter over quarter and 7.8% from a year earlier. (thebrokerlist.com) The Inland Empire is one of the country’s biggest warehouse markets because it sits east of Los Angeles and Long Beach, where cargo from the ports moves inland to distribution centers. NAI Capital put the region’s industrial inventory at 756.9 million square feet and said it has added 130.3 million square feet since Q1 2020. (thebrokerlist.com) The market had been digesting a flood of new buildings for two years. A Riverside County economic report using CoStar data said vacancy rose from 1.3% in mid-2022 to 7.0% by the second quarter of 2024 after more than 35 million square feet of new industrial space delivered since 2023. (rivcoed.org) By late 2024, some brokerages were already seeing stabilization. Savills reported 3.8 million square feet of positive net absorption in Q4 2024 and a 30-basis-point drop in vacancy to 8.7%, while CBRE said the Inland Empire West was improving even as the East kept struggling. (savills.co.uk) (cbre.com) The first quarter of 2026 did not look uniformly better across every dataset. CBRE said vacancy in the Inland Empire Core rose 70 basis points to 7.8% in Q1 2026, and Colliers said market vacancy climbed 56 basis points to 8.1% after four separate 1 million-square-foot buildings went vacant in the same quarter. (cbre.com) (colliers.com) Savills showed an even softer quarter, with market vacancy nearing 9.9% and net absorption at negative 2.3 million square feet after four tenants occupying more than 1 million square feet each exited. Cushman & Wakefield also reported vacancy rising, putting the Inland Empire at 8.5% in Q1 2026. (savills.us) (cushmanwakefield.com) The split reflects how firms draw the market differently and what they count in vacancy, availability, and occupied space. Even with those differences, multiple reports show the same broad pattern: construction has slowed sharply, rents have reset lower, and deal volume remains active enough to keep recovery talk alive. (thebrokerlist.com) (colliers.com) (savills.co.uk) For owners and brokers, the signal is narrower than a full rebound. Sales are happening, some tenants are taking space again, and the Inland Empire’s warehouse market is no longer moving in one direction only. (thebrokerlist.com)
