Despite the rise of the gig economy, the explosion of coworking concepts and the move toward greater density among office-using companies, America’s office market is maintaining steady growth and balance, thanks to the exceptional job growth of this cycle. According to Costar Group, the national office vacancy rate currently stands at a 9.8 percent. Developers delivered approximately 59.3 million square feet of new product over the last 12 months. National net absorption of 56.6 million square feet during that period suggests that the market is quite close to equilibrium. According to the most current available data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) at the time of this writing, between December 2018 and January 2019, American nonfarm payrolls added about 525,000 new jobs. The BLS reported substantially lower job growth in February, with just 20,000 new positions added. However, most economists expect that figure to be revised upward as the effects of Mother Nature and the government shutdown wear off. While office properties only capture a portion of that activity, job growth expectations are still the main criteria by which office market health is evaluated. By that logic, the office markets of Texas’ four largest cities should all post strong …
