Austin office vacancy hits 19%

From Austin Business Journal, January 6, 2009...

Austin’s overall office vacancy rose to 19 percent in 2008, compared with a 14 percent overall vacancy rate in 2007, according to a report released today by Oxford Commercial. Vacancy among Austin’s Class A office properties in 2008 totaled 20 percent, up from 13 percent in 2007.

An increase in inventory--Austin now has a total of more than 42 million square feet of office space as of the end of 2008, 3.6 million of that delivered in the past 12 months--contributed to the increase in vacancy rates, said Vic Russo, a senior vice president in the Austin brokerage firm’s office division. Russo said Oxford is projecting delivery of another 638,811 square feet of new product before the end of the second quarter this year.

Read more...