Nation's office markets moving towards equilibrium.As availability rates continued to decline in all markets nationwide during the last quarter of 2005, and rental rates rose, commercial real estate markets inched closer and closer to equilibrium, which most experts agree equates to an availability rate of approximately 10 percent or less. Studley's national fourth quarter Studley Report for 2005 states the country's major market overall availability rate, which includes all classes of buildings, stands at 15.1%, down 1.9 percentage points from the 17.0% availability rate registered in the fourth quarter of 2004. Although no market posted a dramatic quarterly change in its overall availability rate, all markets--with the exception of Chicago and Northern Virginia Northern Virginia (NoVA) consists of Arlington, Fairfax, Loudoun, and Prince William counties and the independent cities of Alexandria, Falls Church, Fairfax, Manassas, and Manassas Park. , which were flat--posted decreases led by Houston (-1.9 pp), South Florida (-1.3 pp) and Philadelphia (-1.2 pp). Washington D.C. and New York City New York City: see New York, city. New York City City (pop., 2000: 8,008,278), southeastern New York, at the mouth of the Hudson River. The largest city in the U.S. , with respective availability rates of 7.0% and 9.0%, continue to be the tightest markets in the country. But Suburban Maryland (10.8%), Orange County (11.3%) and Northern Virginia (12.1%) were not far behind. By contrast, Dallas/Fort Worth (24.9%), Atlanta (20.4%) and Denver (20.7%) remained the softest national office markets. "As a consequence of the decrease in supply nationally, overall nationwide rents increased to $23.80, an increase of 8.3 percent from last year when the overall fourth quarter rental rate was $21.98," said Joyce Geiger senior vice president, National Research Services. "More significantly, all markets registered yearly overall rent increases, the greatest being San Francisco San Francisco (săn frănsĭs`kō), city (1990 pop. 723,959), coextensive with San Francisco co., W Calif., on the tip of a peninsula between the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay, which are connected by the strait known as the Golden (+21.2%), Northern Virginia (+9.0%), Orange County (+8.1%) and New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of (+7.0%). Looking forward, we expect availability rates to continue to fall, rents to continue to rise and concession packages are likely to begin to decrease." Overall national leasing activity totaled 47.2 million square feet, which represents an increase of 3.5% from the same period a year ago, but a slight drop (4%) from the previous quarter. According to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. Ms. Geiger, most markets posted quarterly decreases in overall leasing activity, the greatest taking place in Philadelphia (-50.8%), Chicago (-31.7%), Tampa Bay Tampa Bay, inlet of the Gulf of Mexico, 25 mi (40 km) long and 7 to 12 mi (11.3–19 km) wide, W Fla., separated from the Gulf by numerous small islands; it receives the Hillsborough River. St. (-24.9%) and San Francisco (-21.0%). But four markets noticeably gained in overall leasing activity, specifically Dallas/Fort Worth (+16.4%), Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. (+22.2%), New York (61.8%), and Houston (+95.7%). |
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