The U.S. economy enjoyed only sluggish growth in the fourth quarter of last year. That doesn’t mean, though, that the commercial real estate industry’s recovery was just as sluggish.
In fact, according to the latest national numbers from CBRE, the commercial real estate recovery continued to chug along in the last quarter of the year.
And the end-of-the-year news was good in several Midwest markets, too.
Nationally, CBRE reported that the national office vacancy rate fell by 10 basis points to 15.4 percent in the fourth quarter of 2012. The industrial market saw its largest quarterly drop in the fourth quarter — 30 basis points — since that sector’s recovery began in 2010. The industrial vacancy rate across the nation fell to 12.8 percent during the fourth quarter.
Even the still-struggling retail sector saw good news, with its vacancy rate falling 10 basis points to 12.8 percent in the fourth quarter.
And multi-family, of course, remained hot during the quarter. CBRE reported that this sector saw a healthy vacancy rate of 5 percent to end 2012.
“The broken record of slow but positive progress toward a real estate recovery continues to repeat,” said Jon Southard, managing director of CBRE’s Econometric Advisors Group, in a written statement.
In the Midwest, Louisville saw its industrial vacancy rate fall to 4.4 percent in the fourth quarter. That’s notable; it’s the lowest this rate has been since CBRE has been tracking this sector in Louisville.
In Indianapolis, the office market — both downtown and suburban — saw a combined net absorption of 328,000 square feet.
