Four Years After Covid: Downtown Recovery Remains Weak

Apollo Chief Economist

Data from downtowns shows that cellphone activity in San Francisco is at 57% of pre-pandemic levels, see chart below. Las Vegas is at 97%, and Miami is at 82% of 2019 levels. The slow recovery of downtowns combined with rates higher for longer has important implications for retail, restaurants, and offices.

Cellphone data shows that downtown activity is still significantly below 2019 levels
Source: University of Toronto, Downtown Recovery, Apollo Chief Economist. Note: The recovery metrics on this website are based on a sample of location-based mobility data derived from cellphones. Metrics are computed by counting the number of unique visitors in a city’s downtown area in the specified time period, and then dividing it by the standardized number of unique visitors during the equivalent time period in 2019.

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