Some areas of the Metroplex are closing in on a complete return to the office, despite the continued prevalence of remote and hybrid work.
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Dallas-Fort Worth’s 62.6% overall return rate just slightly outpaces that of the overall U.S. office sector, which has seen 61.9% of employees come back to the office in person.
But the metrics for Dallas’ central business district and Uptown areas are past 90%, according to Q2 numbers from the Office Busyness Index compiled by Avison Young, which compares cellphone mobility data of daily employees to totals from June 2019.
“We have a lot of multifamily in Uptown, and we also have a lot of nearby neighborhoods. People live and work close by, so coming into the office is an easy thing,” said Walter Bialas, senior insight analyst at Avison Young. “As you get further out, the commutes are getting longer and people have adapted to this hybrid-remote workplace.”
The size and nature of the different businesses in the varying areas of the Metroplex could also play a part in the range of numbers seen in the report, Bialas said. He noted the CBD and Uptown have a lot of law firms and consulting businesses that often prefer the collaboration of in-person work.
DFW’s close-in suburbs averaged nearly 84% of workers back in the office, while businesses in farther suburbs and along the Dallas North Tollway and U.S. 75 are below the overall DFW average, according to the index.
While 2024 numbers show DFW workers are still returning to offices at a steady clip, Bialas said he sees RTO increases becoming more incremental in the years ahead.
“I'd like to think that we're going to get back to where we were,” he said of prepandemic numbers. “I don't think we will.”
The Las Colinas area saw just 52.2% of employees back in the office regularly. Bialas attributed that lower number to workers likely coming from farther away to the centrally located area.
Bialas said many smaller to midsized businesses are back in the office full time. Larger companies can often disperse their employees around the metro, though CRE brokers are regularly seeing tenants downsizing their spaces as leases come up for renewal, he said.
“We're right in the middle of the pack as far as how the numbers shake out, which is important to note,” Bialas said. “It's not like we're an outlier. I think this is what every market's going through.”
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