Office vacancies remained soft locally during the second quarter of 2007, though buildings here are not as empty as in the rest of the country.
The area’s overall vacancy rate was 9.1 percent, compared with 9.2 percent during the first quarter, according to a report released this week by Alexandria-based Delta Associates.
The figure compares with a 8.3 percent vacancy rate during the same time period last year.
Despite the slowdown, the Washington area is still below the national average of 10.3 percent, said Elizabeth Norton, Delta Associates’ director of research for the mid-Atlantic region.
“It has been rising, as there’s been a lot of construction underway, but this quarter we did notice a notable decline in groundbreakings,” she said.
During June, 18.4 million square feet of office space was under construction, while during the same period last year, 18.8 million square feet of construction was in the works.
“I think this will help stabilize the vacancy rate; we hope [the slowdown] is due to developers noticing there’s a lot of supply out there, andbeing more judicious with their projects,” Norton said.
Vacancy rates are not a concern for Northern Virginia because jobs continue to come into the area, said Jane Quill, a commercial real estate agent and chair-elect of the Northern Virginia Association of Realtors.
“Vacancies are going up, but it depends on where you are in Northern Virginia,” Quill said, noting that while vacancy rates in areas such as Crystal City and Loudoun County are higher, areas such as Merrifield with lower rates balance things out.
Rents for office space increased only slightly — by 0.5 percent — during the second quarter, the report found.
