Orange County’s office landlords weren’t popping champagne over the second quarter. But they weren’t drowning their sorrows either.
The slumping office market continued to see weak leasing, rising vacancies and dropping rents. Still, the wholesale bleeding seen during much of the past year appears to have stopped in the recently ended quarter.
Second-quarter data suggest “that the market is nearing the bottom and the worst may be behind us,” said Michael Gold, regional analyst for Colliers International Property Consultants Inc.’s OC division, in a July 10 report.
If there was an upside for landlords during the quarter, it was that vacancy rates only increased about 1% , the smallest quarterly rise seen in more than a year.
Most of the office space given back by the mortgage sector during the sector’s collapse last year now is accounted for in OC’s vacancy figures, area brokerages said.
“The pace of space returning to the market has slowed, and we are beginning to see some signs of stability,” Gold said.
For more on this story, read the July 21 edition of the Business Journal.
