Request: What is the average price per square foot of shared / sublet office, retail and

industrial space in the state of California?

INSIGHTS

- The median price is generally preferred over average price because average
prices are skewed by either extremely high or low sales.
- The median price per square foot of shared or sublet office, retail and industrial
space in the state of California is $50 per square foot.

In this study we found that based on the cities of Los Angeles, San Diego, and San
Francisco, the median price per square foot of shared or sublet office, retail and
industrial space in the state of California is $50 per square foot. Below is a detailed
explanation of our methodology and findings.

METHODOLOGY

We initially started the research by gathering relevant information from online articles,
reports, or any governmental statistics published by sites related to the government in
California such as CA Technologies, California Department of Real Estate, and Bureau
of Real Estate Appraisers (BREA). Unfortunately, we could not gather any relevant
information related to the study since the websites mentioned are mostly focused in the
real estate licenses. We then expanded our search strategy by including industry-
related sites such as 42Floors, Offices.net, Square Foot Research, and Square Foot,
Inc. From these sources, we found a lot of reports regarding the cities in California.
These websites also offer the ability to search for rentals rates in each of the states in
the U.S. Since we were able to collect information regarding the average price per
square foot of the shared or sublet spaces (office, retail, and industrial), we attempted to
use the information found to triangulate data.

First, we tried to identify the biggest cities of California from credible online sources. We
a list that arranged the biggest cities of California based on population, and found that
the first four cities in this list were Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose, and San
Francisco. Next, we checked the websites mentioned above for any publicly available
information regarding the four cities. The websites, aside from Office.net, showed the
median price per square foot, and not the average. Lastly, we attempted to analyze why
the experts in these websites prefer to use median over average, and found that the
median price in a certain neighborhood is mainly considered useful than the average
price in terms of looking at prices. Overall, we found all the required values (median
price per square foot of shared or sublet office space, shared or sublet retail space, and
shared or sublet industrial space) for all the cities aside from San Jose.

We were able to triangulate information using this formula:

Median shared/sublet space (median price per square foot) = MPSF

MPSF of California = (MPSF of Los Angeles + MPSF of San Diego + MPSF of San
Francisco) / 3 cities

OVERVIEW OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

California is one of the cities in the USA that is ranked third in terms of land and total
area, and is the most populated state. It is a strong pillar globally, and is most likely the
most advanced state in the U.S. in terms of technology, internet, and entertainment.
The biggest cities in California based on population are Los Angeles (3,971,883
people); San Diego (1,394,928 people); San Jose (1,026,908 people); and San
Francisco (864,816 people).

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MEDIAN AND AVERAGE

Among the set of numbers, median is a particular number where half of the numbers
are lower, and the remaining half are higher. In sales, the median refers to the price
where half of the products/services sold in a particular area within a given time were
cheaper, and the other half of the products/services sold were more expensive than the
median. On the other hand, average, in a set of numbers, refers to the total of numbers
divided by the number of items (quantity) in that same set. The median price in a certain
neighborhood is mainly considered more useful than average price in terms of looking
at prices. The main reason is that an average price can have significant changes (skew)
by either extremely high or low sales.

MEDIAN PRICE PER SQUARE FOOT OF SHARED OR SUBLET OFFICE SPACE

The median annual rental rates for the state of California are as follows:

 Los Angeles: $40/sq. ft.

 San Diego: $40/sq. ft.
 San Francisco: $70/sq. ft.
 California: $50/sq. ft. [triangulation based on the cities of Los Angeles, San
Diego, and San Francisco: (40+40+70)/3]

MEDIAN PRICE PER SQUARE FOOT OF SHARED OR SUBLET RETAIL SPACE

The median annual rental rates for the state of California are as follows:

 Los Angeles: $40/sq. ft.

 San Diego: $40/sq. ft.
 San Francisco: $70/sq. ft.
 California: $50/sq. ft. [triangulation: (40+40+70)/3]

MEDIAN PRICE PER SQUARE FOOT OF SHARED OR SUBLET INDUSTRIAL

SPACE
The median annual rental rates for the state of California are as follows:

 Los Angeles: $40/sq. ft.

 San Diego: $40/sq. ft.
 San Francisco: $70/sq. ft.
 California: $50/sq. ft. [triangulation: (40+40+70)/3]