Office market fundamentals show moderate growth in major U.S. cities

Office sector fundamentals are picking up in several major U.S. markets, according to the third quarter edition of Insights + Trends + Opportunities from Transwestern and Delta Associates. During the first half of 2015, the trends in office fundamentals have been mainly positive in the country’s large metro areas.

Dallas is the leading performer for net absorption with 2.8 million square feet of positive absorption in the first half of 2015. Boston and Philadelphia also had positive absorption above 2 million square feet, while Chicago, Miami, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C., all had absorption of less than 500,000 square feet.

Most vacancy rates have remained high. Philadelphia has a vacancy rate of 18.3 percent; the rate was more than 15 percent in Atlanta, Chicago and Los Angeles as well. San Francisco has seen a decrease in its vacancy rate, down to 7.4 percent. New York City and Denver were also below 10 percent, at 7.6 percent and 9.9