Pittsburgh's commercial market leads nation in real estate for business purposes

By Sam Spatter
FOR THE TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Pittsburgh's commercial real estate market has maintained its No. 1 position in the nation, according to Moody's Investors Service.

The New York-based ratings company's second-quarter Red-Yellow-Green report issued Tuesday ranked the seven-county region as the top market overall among 60 metropolitan areas nationwide.

Although Oklahoma City was listed as No. 1 in the first quarter 2009 report, Moody's adjusted its method of ranking, which eliminated Oklahoma City and moved Pittsburgh back into the No. 1 spot for that period.Pittsburgh also was rated No. 1 at year-end 2008.

Moody's rated Pittsburgh in three of seven real estate categories the company uses to compare markets. Cities must be rated in three or more categories to get a final ranking. Pittsburgh was judged on multi-family housing, Downtown office vacancies, and full and limited service hotels' occupancy rates. It was not included in retail, industrial or suburban office ratings.

The No. 1 ranking continues the long climb back for the local market, which Moody's ranked among the 10 "most troubled" throughout most of 2005.

Moody's ranking adds to a list of accolades for the region's real estate market.

Kiplinger.com named Pittsburgh one of its six Safe Havens in Real Estate, notingPittsburgh's investment real estate has steadily increased in value with properties in the Downtown, Oakland and Centre/Baum corridor attracting investors willing to pay top dollar for prime real estate.

Moody's uses performances in the seven categories of real estate to arrive at a composite score ranging from 0 to 100.

The name of the report comes from how it describes a market's performance in traffic-light colors, with scores of 0-33 identified as red, 34-66 as yellow, and 67-100 as green.

Moody's evaluation gives the Pittsburgh area a composite score of 52 in the yellow category. The lower score is because of the nation's deflated economy, Moody said.

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