The U.S. office property market stayed on the upswing in July, with asking rates increasing 1.1% year-over-year. Office-using jobs increased 1.7% in the same period, driven by the computer design services portion of the professional business services segment, according to a new national report from Yardi® Matrix.  Additional good news includes a robust late-cycle construction pipeline comprising 174 million square feet of space. That will represent a 2.8% increase in inventory when delivered. Manhattan, N.Y., with 24.2 million square feet, and Boston and San Francisco, with 11.5 million square feet and 10.9 million square feet, respectively, are the leaders in that category. Office space deliveries in the first seven months of 2019 totaled 33.8 million square feet, broken down by central business district (6.5 million square feet), urban (14 million square feet) and suburban areas (13.3 million square feet). Office sales valued at $46.5 billion took place through July, only slightly off last year’s pace. Roiling capital markets haven’t affected demand for office space so far. “Economic growth has been running at an annualized rate of about 2.5%, and fundamentals such as employment and consumer spending remain healthy, so a recession does not appear to be on the immediate horizon,” the report says. Find out what else is happening in the dynamic U.S. office market in the most recent Yardi Matrix national office...

A new national office property report from Yardi Matrix shows that asking rents rose by 1.1% in April 2019 over the previous three month period while robust absorption of new supply kept the vacancy rate unchanged at 13.7%. Office rents’ strength across the U.S. reflects “the continued health of the economy and the growth of the technology, health care and coworking segments,” according to the report. Nineteen of the 25 major markets covered in the report saw gains in asking rents over the past three months. Rent growth was strongest in markets with a healthy dose of “new economy” and technology tenants such as Austin, Texas, Brooklyn, N.Y., San Francisco and the surrounding Bay Area, along with Tampa, Fla., and Nashville, Tenn. Only Chicago and Seattle saw declines of more than 1%. About 14.4 million square feet of office space came online through April, with Class A space accounting for about 90% of the total. Properties under construction represent a 2.9% growth of total inventory. “While it is early in the year and we expect the pace of deliveries to step up later in the year, so far in 2019 suburban construction has outpaced that in central business districts compared to last year,” the report says. Asking rents stood at $36.40 per square foot nationally in April. The vacancy rate was unchanged at 13.7%. Office property transactions valued at $19.8 billion closed in the first four months of the year. Want more insight? View the full Yardi Matrix national office report for May...