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A Steady Month, an Uneven Recovery
October brought another encouraging sign for the return-to-office (RTO) recovery. Despite a shorter working month, nationwide office visits held steady compared to last year, pointing to continued gains in daily attendance.
But beneath the stable national picture, individual markets are moving at very different speeds – with some gaining momentum and others falling further behind.
Office Visits Hold Their Ground
In October 2026, office visits were 33.0% below October 2019 levels – a slight improvement over the 33.1% gap recorded a year earlier. And with one fewer working day than in either 2025 or 2019, the essentially flat monthly result suggests that average daily office attendance continued to climb.
Miami and New York Lead as Regional Gaps Widen
The nationwide result masks diverging trends across major metro areas.
Miami and New York continued to lead the post-pandemic office recovery, with October visits 9.5% and 17.9% below their respective 2019 baselines. Dallas (-24.1%) and Atlanta (-30.2%) also outperformed the nationwide average of -33.0%, while Denver (-47.8%), Chicago (-44.5%), and Washington, D.C. (-43.2%) remained furthest behind.
Boston, meanwhile, led all analyzed markets in YoY growth, with visits up 4.1%. The gain comes as the city's in-office expectations tighten – Fidelity, for example, moved to a five-day schedule in September, and 84% of Boston job postings are now fully on-site.
Los Angeles (+3.0%), Miami (+2.7%), San Francisco (+2.6%), and New York (+1.8%) also posted gains, while Dallas, Atlanta, Houston, and Chicago saw modest declines of between 0.5% and 1.8%. Given the shorter working month, even these declines suggest that average daily office attendance increased.
At the other end of the spectrum, Denver (-6.3%) and Washington, D.C. (-6.2%) posted the steepest YoY drops. Denver, already furthest from its pre-pandemic baseline, saw downtown vacancy tick up again in Q3, while D.C.’s decline extends the softness that has followed workforce contraction.
The Recovery Remains Uneven
October's results offer further evidence that the RTO recovery is continuing, even as monthly visit totals remain well below pre-pandemic levels. Adjusting for the shorter working month reveals encouraging underlying momentum across much of the country.
Still, the growing differences between markets suggest that the next phase of the recovery will depend increasingly on local conditions. While tighter office mandates are helping drive attendance in some cities, employment trends and office market challenges continue to weigh on others.
For more data-driven office analyses, follow placer.ai/anchor.
