Latitude Commercial President Aaron McDermott gave a promising outlook for 2025 in the Crown Point-based commercial real estate firm's annual Northwest Indiana market report.
“Once again the overall market conditions in Northwest Indiana remain favorable, offering another promising outlook for 2025,” he said in the report's opening remarks.
The report offers 2024 insights about retail, office, industrial, investment and property management in the three counties of Lake, Porter and La Porte. The firm analyzed data from CoStar Property, ESRI, the Indiana Department of Workforce Development and the U.S. Department of Labor for its findings.
Key points of the 2024 market report include:
- Record-low retail vacancies
- Surging industrial growth
- Shifting investment strategies
- Evolving office demand
The industrial sector fared best in 2024, with about 1.6 million square feet of industrial space created each quarter.
“Even with this huge influx of supply, which significantly impacted vacancy rates, the new lease signed by Amazon took the rate from 16.2% at the beginning of the year to 5.5% by year end,” McDermott wrote.
With continued demand for remote and hybrid work, flexible office work options with technology to support employees remains in demand.
“This trend is expected to continue, with Northwest Indiana being the beneficiary of that,” he said. “Because of our proximity to Chicago, our area is seeing more and more office demand coming this way seeking that type of model.”
The retail landscape also showed strength with vacancy rates at a four-year low.
He also pointed out that further interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve would take time to trickle down to regional borrowers.
The report offered market facts for the three counties, including 790,727 population, 26,310 total businesses and a median household income of $73,529, according to data provided by Esri. The largest employer by industry is still manufacturing. Find the full report here.
Latitude Commercial offers commercial real estate and property management in Illinois and Indiana. It was founded in 2009 and has released market reports since 2021 for trends in 2020.
