Office vacancies hit 13-year high across San Diego County - San Diego Union Tribune

14.01.09

San Diego County's office landlords started 2008 in relatively good shape, with vacancy a benign 14 percent.

They ended the year battered, with vacancy of 17.8 percent – a 13-year high, commercial brokerage CB Richard Ellis said yesterday.

CB's was one of a slew of reports from major commercial real estate brokers this week pointing to the credit crisis and job losses as taking a toll on the office market last year.

Each brokerage has a different vacancy number, but the overall message is the same. The market was soft last year, and it is expected to remain weak this year.

“Tenants continue to have a wait-and-see attitude and are seemingly more apprehensive to make real estate decisions,” said a report from Grubb & Ellis/BRE Commercial. “In light of the economic outlook, rent growth is not anticipated for 2009.”

Office demand is closely linked to job growth. And the recession has put a clamp on the region's employment expansion. As of November, companies employed 15,300 fewer workers than they did a year earlier, according to the state Economic Development Department.

Source: San Diego Union Tribune, CA

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