Urban office outpaces suburbs as office market remains flat overall

PITTSBURGH — The City of Pittsburgh’s office market showed some ongoing resilience against its suburban competition as overall demand remained relatively flat for the region in two quarterly reports.

According to CBRE⁠'s report on western Pennsylvania’s office market for the third quarter, the city’s downtown fringe and Oakland/East End were the top two submarkets to generate the most leasing activity in the third quarter, measured by square footage. A downtown fringe submarket that typically includes the Strip District, North Shore and South Side accounted for 85,000 square feet of leasing for the quarter, while Oakland and the broader East End generated a close second at 84,000 square feet in CBRE’s report.

“Market conditions in the third quarter of 2026 showed modest improvement in occupancy while demand remained active,” reports CBRE in its overall assessment.