Last week, Rouse Properties finalized its acquisition of a pair of malls located in Richmond, VA, and Salisbury, MD, for a combined purchase price of $292.5 million from affiliates of The Macerich Co. 

The price continues the trends of increased buying of 800,000-square-foot and larger regional malls at falling prices. 

Andrew Silberfein, president and chief executive officer of Rouse Properties said the two centers were key additions to its portfolio of dominant, middle market regional malls. 

"These malls both serve expansive trade areas with limited enclosed mall competition, supporting strong inline and anchor sales volumes," said Silberfein. "The acquisition will diversify Rouse’s geographic presence with Maryland and Virginia representing our 20th and 21st states. We see opportunities at both malls to apply our strong platform to substantially improve the malls’ economic metrics, merchandising mix and tenant quality.” 

The dollar volume of deals for malls larger than 800,000 square feet was up this year from last year by $250 million not including Rouse’s latest deals to $4 billion, according to CoStar COMPs data. 

The average sales price has declined from about $280/square foot at the start of 2012 to just about $130/square foot. 

Macerich has been one of the big sellers of malls this year. It has disposed of eight assets year-to-date 2013 totaling $560 million, generating $466 million of equity. 

It is currently under contract to sell two more assets: Lake Square Mall in Leesburg, FL, and Somersville Towne Center in Antioch, CA.