POLICOM releases annual rankings for the 366 metropolitan areas and 576 so-called micropolitan areas nationwide.

The Top Ten Economies

1.Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, Wash.
2. Washington Metropolitan Area
3. Denver-Aurora-Broomfield, Colo.
4. Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown, Texas
5. Sacramento-Arden-Arcade-Roseville, Calif.
6. Salt Lake City
7. Des Moines-West Des Moines, Iowa
8. San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos, Calif.
9. Madison, Wis.
10. Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, Texas

Understanding the Rankings

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With their stronger economies, these are the office space markets that we would expect to lead the recovery.

OC Register - Orange County office rents fell at an 8.7% annual rate in the first quarter — 2nd worst drop among 79 U.S. markets tracked by commercial real estate analysts at Reis Inc.

Reis pegged typical Orange County office rents at $27.12 per square foot after tumbling in the past year. Only New York — with its $54 rents after a 12.4% cut in a year — had a bigger drop. (Nationally, rents fell 4.2% in the past year!)

One reason for the Orange County rent cuts was a flood of empty offices. Reis put Orange County office vacancy at 19.6% off all space — up 3.8 percentage points in a year. (Nationally, vacancy ran 17.3% in Q1 — up 2.1 percentage points in a year.)

Only 5 U.S. markets had bigger jumps in their vacancy rates:

    * Seattle: 17.1% Q1 vacancy — up 5.1 percentage points in a year.
    * Phoenix: 25.2%  vacancy — up 4.6 points.
    * Las Vegas: 24.2% vacancy — up 4.3 points.
    * Fairfield (Conn.): 19.2% vacancy — up 4.3 points.
    * Ft. Lauderdale: 20.3% vacancy — up 4.2 points.

Victor Calanog, Reis’ director of research, on the national outlook; “Reis does not expect vacancies to begin declining until 2011. It may take another quarter or two after that for positive rent growth to resume. 2010 will be marked by rising vacancies and negative rent growth, but as the overall economy and labor markets continue to recover, the magnitudes of decline should be far less relative to what we recorded in 2009.”

January 8, 2010 WSJ - The office market in Washington, D.C., is poised to topple New York as the nation's most expensive, reflecting the declining fortunes of the nation's financial center and the government expansion under way in the U.S. capital.

Rents declined in almost all of the 79 American cities tracked by Reis Inc., a New York based-research firm, in the fourth quarter of 2009. The largest fall was in New York, where average effective rents -- or the net amount tenants pay after landlord concessions -- fell nearly 20% to $44.69 per square foot annually. It was the sharpest decline in rents ever recorded by Reis since it began compiling data in 1981.

By contrast, average rents in Washington were $41.77 per square foot, down 3% annually. Reis estimates that by the end of this year, rents in New York will come down to around $41.07, slightly below their estimates for Washington of $41.27.

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Even when I am in the hospital, Office Space seems to follow. I was delighted with the view from my hospital room after surgery a couple of weeks ago. I had both a great sunset and daytime view of the Seattle skyline.