Over the past 12 months, big box property sales volume totaled over $460 million, a 63% year over year decrease. Sales for Q2’09 totaled only $29 million, a 90% decrease from Q2’08 and a 34% decrease from Q1’09. Big box properties represent 4% of all retail assets. Big-box retail property sellers have been achieving 94% of their asking price, and all other retail assets have been achieving only 91.5% of their asking price.

On a per-square-foot basis, average pricing for big box retail was down 6%, equal to the 6% decrease for all other retail properties. Cap rates for all retail properties are on the rise, with big box caps up by 54 basis points to 6.84% while other retail caps have increased by 65 bps to 7.15%. The top quartile of big box sales are commanding $154/sf at 6.4% caps while the bottom quartile of properties are trading for $94/sf at a 7.4% cap rate.

Private investors comprised the largest buyer group, acquiring 45% of big box properties on a dollar value basis, while REITs acquired 27% and users acquired 25% of all properties sold. Private buyers and users sold 43% of all properties over the past 12 months. The Southeast, with $216.5m in sales volume, was the only region to post over $100m in sales. Atlanta, with $60 million in sales volume for the past 12 months, was the market with the most activity.