Albuquerque Commercial Real Estate by the Numbers: Market Statistics, Updated October 2026

Albuquerque commercial real estate in ten numbers

If you read nothing else: the Albuquerque metro has roughly 931,000 people and 418,500 nonfarm jobs. Industrial space is 3.6 percent vacant and rents for about $11.10 per square foot NNN. Office is 12.9 percent vacant at $20.93 full-service, with Downtown near 24 percent. Retail is about 7 percent vacant. The combined gross receipts tax rate in the city is 7.625 percent, property tax is assessed on one-third of value, and nothing is under construction in either the industrial or office survey. The tables below give each figure its source and date.

Population and income

The Albuquerque housing market area had an estimated 931,100 residents on January 1, 2025, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, with growth averaging about 3,075 people per year, or 0.3 percent annually, since April 2020. HUD attributes all of that growth to net in-migration, averaging roughly 3,500 people per year, which offsets a natural decrease. The City of Albuquerque itself had an estimated 556,588 residents on July 1, 2025 (Census Bureau Vintage 2025).

Median household income in the city is $68,317 and the median value of an owner-occupied home is $291,500, both from the 2020 to 2024 American Community Survey. Slow but steady population growth, an older-than-average population, and housing costs well below the Mountain West's larger metros shape demand: medical office, services retail, and distribution grow with the population; speculative office does not.

Employment by sector

The Bureau of Labor Statistics counts 418,500 nonfarm jobs in the Albuquerque metropolitan statistical area as of September 2026 (preliminary), with a civilian labor force of 449,500 and an unemployment rate of 4.8 percent as of August 2026 (preliminary). HUD's analysis of the three months ending December 2024 put nonfarm payrolls at 427,800 with a 4.0 percent unemployment rate, so the labor market has softened over 2025 and 2026 even as the sector mix has stayed the same.

Government is the largest sector at 82,900 jobs, which includes Kirtland Air Force Base's civilian workforce, the University of New Mexico, state and local government, and the public schools. Education and health services follow at 75,200, then trade, transportation, and utilities at 69,100 and professional and business services at 62,400, the sector that includes Sandia National Laboratories. Manufacturing, at 16,600, is small by national standards, which is why the industrial market is dominated by distribution and service users rather than production.

Largest employers and anchor investments

Albuquerque's economy rests on federal science and defense. Kirtland Air Force Base employs about 23,000 military and civilian personnel, including contractors, and generated an economic impact of more than $7.5 billion in 2024 according to HUD. Sandia National Laboratories reported 16,320 employees as of September 30, 2025, with 12,915 of them at the Albuquerque site, and $5.77 billion in FY2025 funding. The University of New Mexico employs about 13,950 people, excluding the hospital system counted separately.

Private investment has followed. Intel announced a $3.5 billion investment in May 2021 to equip its Rio Rancho operations for advanced semiconductor packaging, projecting at least 700 high-tech jobs and 1,000 construction jobs. Netflix completed a roughly $1 billion expansion of its Albuquerque Studios campus at Mesa del Sol, per HUD's January 2025 analysis, and HUD noted three solar-manufacturing and research firms with announced expansions expected to add about 3,500 jobs over several years. These projects drive the industrial and flex demand on the Westside, at Mesa del Sol, and in Rio Rancho described in our submarket guides.

Industrial market: vacancy, rents, and submarkets

CBRE's second-quarter 2026 survey covers 47.9 million square feet of industrial space in the metro. Vacancy was 3.6 percent, up from 3.4 percent in the first quarter but down from 4.4 percent a year earlier. Total availability was 4.5 percent, including 0.4 percent sublease space. Net absorption was negative 93,000 square feet for the quarter after 440,000 square feet in the first quarter, leaving the year-to-date figure at positive 347,000 square feet. The average direct asking rate rose to $11.10 per square foot per year NNN from $10.64 in the first quarter and $10.63 a year earlier. No space was delivered and nothing was under construction, which is the single most important fact in the market: demand has nowhere new to go.

By product type, distribution and logistics space (18.3 million square feet) is the tightest at 2.6 percent vacancy and the most expensive at $12.08, while general manufacturing space (13.8 million square feet) is 6.2 percent vacant at $9.66. Flex and R&D space asks $13.25. Small buildings are scarce: product under 50,000 square feet is 2.4 percent vacant and asks $12.88, the highest of any size range. CBRE's third-quarter 2026 narrative, published in October, reported that occupier demand rebounded, vacancy remained low by historical standards, there were no new supply additions, and rental rates kept rising.

Office market: a suburban market and a Downtown problem

CBRE's second-quarter 2026 office survey covers 12.62 million square feet in buildings of 10,000 square feet or more. Vacancy was 12.9 percent, down from 13.4 percent in the first quarter and essentially flat against 12.8 percent a year earlier. Total availability was 14.5 percent with 1.2 percent sublease. The quarter produced positive net absorption of 62,000 square feet, bringing the year to date to positive 12,000 square feet, and the average direct asking rate was $20.93 per square foot per year full-service. Nothing was delivered and nothing is under construction.

The averages hide the real story. Suburban buildings (9.82 million square feet) were 9.9 percent vacant at $21.90, while urban buildings (2.80 million square feet) were 23.6 percent vacant at $19.46; Downtown had the highest submarket vacancy at 23.6 percent and Class B buildings in the urban core were 36.7 percent vacant. Class A space metro-wide tightened sharply, from 19.6 percent vacant in the first quarter to 14.9 percent, with 97,000 square feet of absorption, as tenants traded up. North I-25 carried the highest asking rate at $23.44 and the Airport submarket the lowest at $15.96; SE Heights (3.9 percent) and West Mesa (4.1 percent) were the tightest submarkets.

Retail market: low vacancy, rising after big-box exits

Retail data is published less consistently than industrial and office. The most recent public figures, from Colliers New Mexico as reported by the Commercial Association of Realtors New Mexico in January 2026, put citywide retail vacancy at about 7 percent, up from 5.6 percent a year earlier, after the closures of Big Lots, Joann, and Party City returned big-box space to the market. Brokers quoted in the same report described absorption of those boxes as strong.

Vacancy varies more by corridor in retail than in any other sector. Uptown was 0.7 percent vacant, the Far Northeast Heights 3 percent, and North I-25 4 percent, while the University area was 14 percent, the Southeast Heights 16 percent, and Downtown 18 percent. For tenants, that means the strong corridors offer little choice and little negotiating room, and the weak ones offer concessions with a reason attached. Our retail guide covers the corridors in detail.

Taxes and costs that change the underwriting

New Mexico's tax structure differs from neighboring states in ways that show up in every proforma. The gross receipts tax, which applies to services as well as goods, carries a combined rate of 7.625 percent inside the City of Albuquerque in 2026 (4.875 percent state portion); rent under a true lease of real property is deductible, but brokerage commissions, management, and construction are taxed. Property tax is levied on one-third of assessed value times the local mill rate, and a sale can reset the assessment. The state taxes capital gains as ordinary income at rates up to 5.9 percent with the general deduction capped at $2,500 from tax year 2025. There is no real estate transfer tax, and foreclosure is judicial.

Air service and connectivity

The Albuquerque International Sunport handled about 5.26 million passengers in the twelve months ending June 2026, roughly 1.8 percent fewer than the prior twelve months, according to the airport's monthly air statistics; June 2026 alone saw 480,236 passengers against 496,721 in June 2025. The Sunport sits at the junction of I-25 and I-40, which also makes the surrounding South I-25 and Airport industrial submarkets the region's primary logistics locations: I-40 connects Los Angeles to Oklahoma City and points east, and I-25 connects El Paso and the border crossings at Santa Teresa to Denver.

How to use these numbers, and what they do not tell you

Every figure above has a source and a date, and the sources do not share a methodology. CBRE's office survey covers buildings of 10,000 square feet and larger; a 6,000-square-foot medical building is not in it. Submarket boundaries differ between brokerages. Asking rates are what landlords quote, not what deals close at, and the gap between the two widens in weak submarkets. BLS monthly figures are preliminary and revised. We update this page quarterly as new surveys publish and keep the previous figures in the text where a trend matters.

For a specific decision, the market number is the starting point, not the answer. A tenant comparing two buildings needs the total occupancy cost of each; an investor underwriting a purchase needs closed comparable sales, the building's actual rent roll, and the post-sale property tax bill. We provide those on request for Albuquerque, Rio Rancho, Santa Fe, and Las Cruces.

• Industrial: compare an asking rent to the submarket figure above, then to the actual deals we have closed in that corridor.
• Office: separate suburban from urban before drawing any conclusion from the metro average.
• Retail: corridor vacancy matters more than the citywide number; a 0.7 percent Uptown and an 18 percent Downtown are different markets.
• Taxes: budget GRT on commissions, management, and construction, and underwrite the reassessed property tax, not the seller's bill.

Sources

1. CBRE, Albuquerque Industrial Figures Q2 2026
2. CBRE, Albuquerque Industrial Figures Q3 2026 (narrative)
3. CBRE, Albuquerque Office Figures Q2 2026
4. CARNM, Retail vacancies climb amid big-box exits (Colliers data), January 2026
5. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Albuquerque MSA economy at a glance
6. HUD, Comprehensive Housing Market Analysis: Albuquerque, New Mexico, January 2025
7. U.S. Census Bureau, QuickFacts: Albuquerque city, New Mexico
8. Sandia National Laboratories, Facts and figures FY2025
9. Intel, $3.5 billion New Mexico investment announcement, May 3, 2021
10. Albuquerque International Sunport, air statistics June 2026
11. New Mexico Taxation and Revenue Department, gross receipts tax rates
12. NMSA 1978 Section 7-9-53, deduction for sale or lease of real property
13. New Mexico Economic Development Department, Opportunity Zones