New York-based property research firm Reis released a report stating that the US gained 3.7 million square feet of occupied office space in the last three months through June.
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Nine of the ten main office markets in the US saw vacancy rates either drop or stay the same. In more than 50 per cent of the 79 metropolitan areas surveyed, vacancy rates dropped.
However, take-up of office space also dropped in the second quarter compared to the first, suggesting the recovery of both the office space market and the economy as a whole still has a way to go.
There is much ground to make up, as between January 2008 and September 2010, 138 million square feet of office space across the US was vacated, according to Reis. This pushed the vacancy rate from 12.6 per cent to 17.6 per cent.
Since October last year, occupied space has grown by only 11.9 million square feet.
Nevertheless, slow though the rebound may be, it does continue. Reis found that much of the rebound has been driven by rising demand from technology companies.
Ryan Severino, an economist at Reis, stated that the number of new leases was not a large amount “relative to the overall inventory.”
However, he added: “We are generally trending in the right direction, even if it is a slower, more inconsistent recovery than market participants would like to see.”
Editor’s notes: In Q1 2023, the US nationwide vacancy rate was 16.4 per cent, and rates had increased quarter-on-quarter in most US cities.
The highest office space vacancy rate in the US in Q1 2023 was in San Francisco at 26.8 per cent, followed by New Jersey at 25.8 per cent.
West Palm Beach had the lowest office space vacancy rate at 10.3 per cent, followed by Grand Rapids, MI, at 13.2 per cent.
US nationwide net absorption in Q1 2026 totalled 6.9 million square feet, the highest Q1 total since 2020 and the eighth consecutive quarter of positive demand.
In the first quarter of 2026, the overall national office vacancy rate was 18.6 per cent, and the prime office vacancy rate was 12.7 per cent, reflecting the ongoing flight to quality.
Of the major nationwide office markets, San Francisco had one of the highest overall vacancy rates at around 27 per cent, and Manhattan had the lowest at circa 13 per cent.
The average taking rent nationwide was $33.35 per square foot per annum.