US Office vacancies hit 16-year highs
CNN Money ^ | 04/07/2010 | David Ellis
Posted on Wednesday, April 07, 2010 9:44:30 AM by SeekAndFind
Office vacancy rates are now at their highest level in 16 years, according to a report published Monday, as elevated unemployment levels across the country continue to temper the demand for space.
Roughly 700 million square feet, or 17.2%, of the more than 4 billion of available office space nationwide was unoccupied as of the end of March, according to the real estate research firm Reis. The last time office vacancies were this high was in 1994.
The number of empty offices has been on the rise since the start of 2008, as soaring unemployment and a wave of business failures have crushed commercial real estate.
The trend however, has not just been isolated to those parts of the country that have been particularly hard hit by the recession.
In fact, nearly three-quarters of the country's major metropolitan areas experienced an increase in office vacancies in the first quarter of 2010.
(Excerpt) Read more at money.cnn.com ...
________________________ ________________________ _________
Driving around NYC the vacancies are eveywhere. I think a lot of businesses are sharing space now or just winding down operations.
