Dallas-Fort Worth industrial property sales are off to a roaring start in 2020.

Investment sales of DFW industrial assets reached a volume of $844.3M in the first two months of 2020, an Avison Young report says.

Between the onset of the new year and the end of February, investors purchased 9.5M SF of DFW industrial space across 26 properties with an average price point of $89 per SF, according to Avison Young.

“We continue to see investors focus on core industrial markets that have the large population centers to support growing logistics and e-commerce networks,” Avison Young principal Erik Foster said in a press statement. “Dallas is seeing significant inbound population migration and robust state economics, factors that support additional supply chain activity.”

The two-month sales volume in DFW is a continuation (or potentially an acceleration) of trends already well underway in 2019, when industrial investment sales hit $5.6B, up 6.6% from 2018.

The DFW market bested all other top industrial markets last year by reporting the highest annual increase in industrial sales prices.

The average price per SF in DFW hit $85 on all industrial investment sales, up 17.7% from a year earlier.

The only other markets with comparable price increases were Atlanta ($69 per SF, or a 9.5% increase), Chicago ($79 per SF, up 7.5%), the Inland Empire ($123, up 5.1%) and Miami ($132 per SF, up 3.2%).

The DFW market received 28.2M SF of new industrial space last year and had about 31.6M SF in its pipeline at the end of 2019, Avison Young reported.

Institutional investors were particularly active in DFW last year, purchasing 44.1% of all assets sold, followed by private investors (34.4%) and cross-border investors (10.7%).