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Summer’s over, and office workers are back, with September bringing the strongest office foot traffic the country has seen in any September since before the pandemic.
So what does the data show, and how did the fall rebound play out across major markets nationwide? We dove into the data to find out.
Office Visits Keep Climbing
Nationwide office visits rose 4.0% YoY in September, narrowing the gap with September 2019 to 25.5% – the smallest September shortfall since the pandemic. And with 21 working days in both September 2026 and September 2025, YoY growth came without the benefit of extra workdays.
The gains coincided with another round of stricter attendance policies. General Mills and Target’s merchandising organization moved to four days a week in September, while Disney tightened its four-day policy to cover more remote employees. Those changes add to the broader return-to-office (RTO) push, following a slew of five-day policies that took effect over the past year.
San Francisco Picks Up the Pace
Miami (+1.1%), New York (-11.0%), and Dallas (-13.5%) once again led the recovery relative to 2019, with Miami back above its pre-pandemic baseline.
San Francisco, meanwhile, posted September’s strongest YoY growth, with office visits up 12.2% amid a sustained AI-driven leasing boom. The City by the Bay, which long lingered near the bottom of the rankings, also outperformed four other markets relative to 2019, with visits just 33.8% below pre-pandemic.
Elsewhere, the recovery faced more hurdles. Washington, D.C. was flat YoY as the region continued contending with substantial job losses. Denver, meanwhile, was the only market analyzed to post a decline (-3.8%), against a backdrop of high downtown vacancy.
Can the Fall Rebound Continue?
September’s back-to-school energy extended to the office, pushing nationwide office visits to their highest September level since 2019. And though the usual frontrunners held the lead, San Francisco emerged as the month’s fastest-growing market.
Will that momentum carry through the fall before holiday schedules shake up office routines again?
For more data-driven RTO insights, visit placer.ai/anchor.
