The Sale Market Has a Pulse. Here's What It's Telling Us.
$2.72 Billion in Closed Sales. 330 Transactions. 843 Active Listings. The SoCal industrial sale market is steadily gaining momentum.
We have dozens of active for sale listings and BOV's in the market and always trying to read the tea leaves on the sale market. I thought it timely to do a comprehensive review of every closed industrial sale across Los Angeles, Orange County, and the Inland Empire over the past 90 days. 330 transactions. $2.72 billion in total volume. Here's what I learned:
The Three Numbers That Matter
-- 7.7 months of inventory. That's 843 active listings divided by 110 closings per month. Below 6 months is a seller's market. Above 9 tips toward buyers. At 7.7, neither side has a structural advantage, but well priced product is clearing inside of 180 days. The market rewards discipline and punishes overpricing.
-- The bid-ask gap is nearly closed. In the Inland Empire, the average asking price is $275 PSF and the median sold price is $280 PSF. That's a $5/SF gap, the tightest in the region. When sellers and buyers are this close on value, deals happen faster because neither side is waiting for the other to move. Los Angeles is tightening too. The sellers still pricing to 2022 expectations are the ones sitting at 500+ days on market.
-- Capital is flowing again. Capital flows into industrial real estate started increasing again in 2025 after the post rate hike pullback. Cap rates have stabilized around 5%, giving both buyers and sellers a framework they can underwrite with confidence. We're tracking 110 deals a month.
Where Things Actually Traded
Los Angeles: $315 PSF median sold. 80 deals with pricing data. The 25th percentile sits at $254 PSF while the 75th touches $376 PSF, a $122 PSF spread driven by building quality, clear height, dock count, and location within the metro.
Inland Empire: $280 PSF median sold. $1.05 billion in total closed volume, 39% of all SoCal industrial capital over the past 90 days. For buyers priced out, or invested in the IE growth thesis, this is where capital is landing. The 25K-50K SF range came in at just $200 PSF.
Orange County: $432 PSF median sold. The median sold price is trading above the average asking price of $383 PSF. The reason the median sold looks so high is what's actually closing in OC are newer vintage, smaller footprint buildings. The older, larger listings sitting on the market at lower ask prices pull the average asking number down.
What This Means
The fundamentals are sound. Pricing discovery is maturing. Capital is deploying. The bid-ask gap is closing. And the structural demand drivers manufacturing, distribution, e-commerce, haven't softened. Whether you're thinking about selling, acquiring, or just trying to understand what your building is worth today, the data is clearer than it's been in two years.
I put together an 18 slide market breakdown with deal level data, pricing by market and size segment, inventory analysis, and featured properties along with an executive brief you can access. If any of this is relevant to a decision you're weighing, hit reply and let's talk.
Justin
Justin Smith, SIOR 949.400.4786 jbsmith@lee-associates.com (mailto:jbsmith@lee-associates.com)
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