Last week, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) released their quarterly commercial real estate forecast. They predicted a continuing overall decline in vacancy rates and increase in rental rates with the exception of a very slight increase in the multifamily vacancy rate due to the large number of new apartment units coming to market. Some of the findings:
~The national office vacancy rate is projected to decline from 15.6% in the 2nd Quarter of 2015 to 15.5% in the 2nd Quarter of 2016; rents are expected to increase by 3.4% this year and 3.7% in 2016.
~The national industrial vacancy rate will drop from 8.4% in the 2nd Quarter this year to 8.1% in the same quarter next year; rents will increase by 3.1% in both 2015 and 2016.
~The national retail vacancy rate will fall from the current 9.6% to 9.2% during the next year; rents will increase 2.6% this year and 3.1% in 2016.
A link to the entire NAR report is found here: Modest Growth Expectred in Commercial Real Estate Markets