US Office Vacancy Rises for First Time Since 2010 as Construction Peaks and Rent Growth Slows
April 27, 2017 | by Randyl Drummer | CoStar
The U.S. office vacancy ticked up 0.1% in the first three months of 2017 to 10.3% marking the first quarterly increase since 2010.
Total net absorption in the US office market slipped approximately 9% from the same period a year ago as developers added an additional 19 million square feet of new office space across the country.
Reflecting the increasing competition for tenants as supply ramps up, average office rent growth came in at 2.3% in the first quarter, less than half the growth rate in 2015, as deceleration in rental rates spread from Houston, San Francisco, New York City and a handful of other high-growth markets into all but four of the top 25 U.S. metros. Those were among the key findings presented last week by analysts during CoStar’s State of the U.S. Office Market Q1 2017 Review and Forecast.
