U.S. office market absorption increases significantly in first quarter 2014

Year-over-year gains in U.S. market absorption hit 133 percent in first quarter 2014, with no market showing a greater increase than Houston, which recorded nearly 1 million square feet of absorption, compared with just 36,000 square feet during the same period a year ago, according to new research from Cushman & Wakefield.

"The big story for the first quarter is the market's 9.7 million square feet in positive absorption, which compares to 4.2 million square feet of gains last year at this time," Maria Sicola, head of research for the Americas at Cushman & Wakefield, said in a statement. "Many markets with negative absorption at the start of 2013 turned around to positive gains to kick off 2014."

The leading markets in raw occupancy gains were New York City’s Midtown South (1.7 million square feet), Chicago (1.4 million square feet) and San Francisco (1.2 mil