US Shopping Centers Saw Lowest Vacancy Rate in 15 Years in 2022
January 13, 2023 | Rebecca Baird-Remba | Commercial Observer
Shopping centers across the U.S. are seeing their lowest vacancy rate since 2007, largely because there is not enough new retail space in some parts of the country, according to a new fourth-quarter report from Cushman & Wakefield.
Vacancy in shopping centers peaked in early 2021 at nearly 8 percent, and by the fourth quarter of 2022 it had sunk to 5.7 percent, down 20 basis points from the previous quarter. While C&W did not include data from 2007, the report indicates that the shopping center vacancy rate in 2008 was around 7.5 percent. Asking rents were also up in the fourth quarter of 2022 to $23 a square foot, rising 0.8 percent from the third quarter.
