Despite a general cooling of the commercial real estate market nationally, Midtown Manhattan has the country’s lowest vacancy rate, and boasts the country’s highest rents, a new Cushman & Wakefield study shows.
According to the report, average Manhattan asking rents are up $14.88 from this time last year, and Midtown maintains the highest rents in the nation at $83.96 a square foot, followed by Boston at $50.09 per square foot.
In terms of vacancies, space-constrained Midtown South had the lowest vacancy in the country at 5.9 percent, but that figure was still up 2.4 percentage points from a year ago.
Overall, office vacancies are rising around the country in what experts say could signal the start of a downturn.
Across the country, vacancy rates increased the most in mortgage-industry heavy Orange County, Calif., which saw vacancies surge 7.4 percent from a year ago, while Fort Lauderdale, Fla., rose 5.8 percent.
