Transwestern: Office decline not as ugly as tech wreck - Washington Business Journal:

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According to the report, Class A office space in Dallasaveraged $21.68 per foot in Decembef of 2006 and continued to rise until droppinv back down to $21.64 cents per squarre foot in June. Meanwhile, Class B office space was pricedfat $17.34 per square foot in December of 2006 and also trended upwarc until falling back to $17.38 per foot in June of this Riis Christensen, senior vice president at Transwestern, said Friday that there has been "qa two and a half year peel back in quotexd rates." He added that 77 perceny of Class A buildings have reduced their ratess in the last six while 79 percent of Class B buildings have lowered rates.
Christensen said Class C buildings are feeling the pinch of a consumer where Class A and Class B propertiez are lowering rates tostay "For successful businesses this is when there is a flight to qualityh from 'C' to 'B' or from 'B' to Christensen said. "People will upgrade, or they will use the markeyt to renegotiate where theyare now." The broader economt that led to the new conditions includezs a higher unemployment rate and the fact that Dallas-Fort Worth bled 49,500 jobs in the 12-monty period ending in April, the reporrt said. The overall vacancy rate in the officwe market stoodat 16.9 percent in the second That is up from 16.
7 perceng in the first quarter, but lowet than the 17.2 percent recorded a year ago, accordinyg to the report. Rents were lower in both the Clasxs A and B commercial property sector in the first halfof 2009, the report indicated. In the second quarte of 2009, net absorption in the industriap markettotaled 1.2 million square feet, which is the same amount recorded durinvg the same period of 2008. The overall vacancg rate in the second quarter alsowas 11.1 down slightly from 11.2 percent durinhg the first quarter, but up from 9 percent comparecd to a year ago. Despite changes related to the Christensen addedthat 900,000 square feet of spaced was still absorbed this year.
He believesw this speaks well for how diversifiedthe Dallas-Forg Worth market is. "We're not seeingy in the great recession the really big ugly losseds that we did in thetech wreck," he "Dallas is still going to be a job growtbh leader, and that fuels everything," he said. "Th regional economy is weaking, but it is outperformin g the rest ofthe U.S."