Record increases in commercial property prices

After dropping over the past few months, commercial real estate prices across the country shot up 4.3 percent in September, according to the latest report from Moody's Investors Service.

The increase was the largest monthly rise in 10 years, and brought prices up 0.3 percent from a year ago. However, prices still remain significantly below their peak levels from 2007.

"Each of the summer months this year recorded declines in the 3 percent to 4 percent range, followed by this month's sizeable uptick," said Nick Levidy, a Moody's managing director in New York. He added that the low number of overall transactions is responsible for the drastic switch.

The report added that there continues to be high demand for premier locations in major cities, such as the Houston real estate market, and lesser demand in other cities. In the top 10 metropolitan markets, office prices jumped a total of 22 percent over last year.

Other indices have reported even stronger commercial real estate price growth. Bloomberg reports that according to Maryland-based CoStar, sales prices investment grade properties increased by 5.5 percent during the month.