Commercial real estate is commonly thought of as shopping centers, office buildings, and hotels. It also includes medical and educational buildings. It includes vacant land that will eventually be leased, or built upon for buildings to be leased.
It is not residential real estate, which is property used to live in. Depending on the source, data about apartment complexes can be lumped into reports on residential real estate.
Industrial real estate is property used to manufacture a product. Sometimes data about industrial real estate is categorized separately.
Data about commercial real estate trends is usually a lagging indicator. That's because commercial real estate development is built after residential. Shopping centers, offices and schools are usually built after an area has the homes and shoppers to support it. It can also take several years to construct commercial real estate. During a recession, commercial real estate hits its low after residential real estate.
