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US Office vacancies hit 16-year highs
CNN Money ^ | 04/07/2010 | David Ellis

Posted on 04/07/2010 6:44:30 AM PDT 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 ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: bhoeconomy; economy; hopeychangey; obama; officevacancy; realestate; unemployment

1 posted on 04/07/2010 6:44:30 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

Folks, I’m here to tell you, reports of economic recovery have been greatly exaggerated.


2 posted on 04/07/2010 6:46:23 AM PDT by Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus (We bury Democrats face down so that when they scratch, they get closer to home.)
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To: SeekAndFind

The feds are on a pace to lease 3,000,000 square feet of space in the DC area this year alone! We are going to need all that room for all of the bureaucrats who will decide whether we live or die and the IRS agents who will be our overlords. mega s/


3 posted on 04/07/2010 6:50:33 AM PDT by RU88
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To: SeekAndFind

All the Keynesians find this “unexpected”.


4 posted on 04/07/2010 6:53:15 AM PDT by MrEdd (Heck? Geewhiz Cripes, thats the place where people who don't believe in Gosh think they aint going.)
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To: SeekAndFind
As of a few months ago it was at 21% here in Seattle....with no end in sight.

A couple weeks ago 3,000 people disappeared from the US Bank Centre building, overnight.

It's very sad to see happening.

Thanks Democrats, you freakin' morons.

5 posted on 04/07/2010 6:53:22 AM PDT by Psycho_Bunny (Socialism is for people who've given up.)
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To: RU88

Great. We did have fair warning from Gerald Celente though. This is getting past “outta hand,” and into “hold onto your hats”!


6 posted on 04/07/2010 6:54:11 AM PDT by JDW11235 (I think I got it now!)
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To: SeekAndFind
'Hope' for the commercial real estate market is just around the corner:

"This is the moment when we must build on the wealth that open markets have created, and share its benefits more equitably. Trade has been a cornerstone of our growth and global development. But we will not be able to sustain this growth if it favors the few, and not the many."

-Barack Hussein Obama

7 posted on 04/07/2010 6:56:24 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer (The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.)
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To: SeekAndFind

And yet more commercial space is being built!

I don’t get it!


8 posted on 04/07/2010 6:56:55 AM PDT by TSgt (It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea....)
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To: JDW11235
Great. We did have fair warning from Gerald Celente though. This is getting past “outta hand,” and into “hold onto your hats”!

When the conversation gets around to the problems today I just love asking the liberals "Didn't you believe Rush when he was warning you". They almost go catatonic at that point and then the discussion changes to how is the weather or have you tasted the new ice cream at the 7-11?

Much fun.

9 posted on 04/07/2010 6:59:26 AM PDT by ProudFossil
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To: MikeWUSAF
And yet more commercial space is being built!

I don’t get it!


Tell that to the folks responsible for rebuilding the site that got destroyed in 911. It's been 9 freaking years and we haven't done a darn thing. The hole int he ground is still there and Osama Bin Ladin must be smiling with satisfaction everyday.

We built the Empire State Building in one year in the height of the great depression. We can't do anything today.
10 posted on 04/07/2010 7:00:34 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: ProudFossil

Sadly, that’s about as much as they seem to wrap their minds around, otherwise we wouldn’t be here. It’s just calling their bluff, on speaking about things of which they know little, to nothing; so it would seem.


11 posted on 04/07/2010 7:07:19 AM PDT by JDW11235 (I think I got it now!)
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To: SeekAndFind

Maybe they’re securing EPA permits. /s


12 posted on 04/07/2010 7:08:35 AM PDT by JDW11235 (I think I got it now!)
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To: Psycho_Bunny
A couple weeks ago 3,000 people disappeared from the US Bank Centre building, overnight.

Rapture?..................

13 posted on 04/07/2010 7:09:47 AM PDT by Red Badger (Education makes people easy to lead, difficult to drive; easy to govern, but impossible to enslave.)
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To: MikeWUSAF
I don't know where you see more commercial space being built, but here in my neck of the woods a lot of projects have been put on hold and a few office/commercial have been stopped even after construction had already begun.

I've noticed an interesting trend, too . . . it seems that most of the active construction I've seen in the last 18 months has involved commercial buildings where one of the occupants is the owner himself.

14 posted on 04/07/2010 7:11:09 AM PDT by Alberta's Child ("Let the Eastern bastards freeze in the dark.")
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To: SeekAndFind

That “hole in the ground” is the symbol of evertyhing that is wrong in America. We cannot build, we cannot use our God given talents to innovate and implement or even plan a building without government stepping all over the plans and saying “No!”...................


15 posted on 04/07/2010 7:13:14 AM PDT by Red Badger (Education makes people easy to lead, difficult to drive; easy to govern, but impossible to enslave.)
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To: MikeWUSAF
Because the money has been approved and if a company stops building there are a lot of repercussions. Also, newer buildings are normally more marketable than older buildings. They have updated wiring, more parking, much more efficient (saving the customer money) with more amenities. Actually if a company can afford to move now is the time to do it and get a great deal on office space.

The problem is companies are moving out of the old buildings and into the new ones, which of course hits the old building pretty hard.

The commercial real estate market is about to get hit real hard, and when it does it won't be pretty.

16 posted on 04/07/2010 7:14:19 AM PDT by A Texan (Oderint dum metuant)
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To: A Texan

Imagine the plethora of jobs that would be created if the government became business friendly and privatized many of its services.

All that commercial real estate would be gobbled up by entrepreneurs, our economy would be on fire!

Sorry, I’ll put away the crack pipe now...


17 posted on 04/07/2010 7:17:04 AM PDT by TSgt (It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea....)
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To: MikeWUSAF
Because the money has been approved and if a company stops building there are a lot of repercussions. Also, newer buildings are normally more marketable than older buildings. They have updated wiring, more parking, much more efficient (saving the customer money) with more amenities. Actually if a company can afford to move now is the time to do it and get a great deal on office space.

The problem is companies are moving out of the old buildings and into the new ones, which of course hits the old building pretty hard.

The commercial real estate market is about to get hit real hard, and when it does it won't be pretty.

18 posted on 04/07/2010 7:25:30 AM PDT by A Texan (Oderint dum metuant)
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To: SeekAndFind

When I first read the headline, I thought:

“1984, like the precautionary tale of the U.S. under communism.”

My bad!

I know, it’s 1994. Still, seems the same to me.


19 posted on 04/07/2010 7:31:04 AM PDT by wizr (Keep the Faith! Even when it gets tough! Nothing else will do.)
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To: SeekAndFind

I watched a documentary on the 1929 collapse. They had a mini-collapse early on and a banker stepped in to backstop the market. Everyone cheered and ran the market back up. No one fixed the underlying problems, no one cared that the economic prosperity was smoke and mirrors. Then it went over the cliff and the rest is history. Sound familiar?


20 posted on 04/07/2010 1:47:19 PM PDT by Gen-X-Dad
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