August 2026 Placer.ai Office Index: RTO Momentum Still Strong

Mandates Meet the Summer Slowdown

August is typically one of the office calendar’s quieter months, as vacations and school breaks thin out workplace traffic. But this year, that seasonal slowdown coincided with a growing wave of return-to-office mandates.

So how did office traffic hold up – and what does it reveal about the state of the RTO recovery? We dove into the data to find out.

A Record August

Year over year, nationwide office visits rose 6.2% in August 2026, while remaining 32.5% below August 2019 levels – the smallest August gap since 2020.

The narrowing gap vs. 2019 is especially notable because August 2026 had just 21 working days, compared with 22 in August 2019 – giving this year one fewer day to accumulate office visits. (August 2025 also had 21 working days, while August 2024 had 22 and August 2022 and 2023 had 23.)

Miami, New York, and Dallas Stay Out Front

Miami (-11.6%), New York (-18.0%), and Dallas (-20.8%) once again led the major markets in their recovery relative to 2019, with Atlanta (-29.4%) the only other market ahead of the nationwide average. 

New York also posted the strongest YoY growth, at 8.9%, rebounding from a July marked by heat emergencies, followed closely by Boston (+8.7%) and Miami (+8.6%). Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Chicago also outpaced nationwide YoY growth, even as each remained roughly 40% or more below its 2019 baseline.

At the other end of the spectrum, Washington, D.C. (-0.8%) and Denver (-3.4%) were the only markets to slip YoY, and both remain furthest from their 2019 baselines. D.C.’s weakness likely reflects a regional job market that shed more than 100,000 jobs over the past year, while Denver continues to contend with a remote-friendly work culture and record downtown vacancy.

The Autumn Test

August’s results suggest the latest wave of RTO mandates is continuing to support office traffic, even during one of the calendar’s quieter months. And with additional policies still to come, the fall will be the recovery’s next major test.

Will tighter attendance requirements push offices closer to pre-pandemic levels? And will Denver begin to see a San Francisco-like turnaround as high vacancy creates new opportunities for reinvestment?

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