The Houston retail market experienced modest improvement in 2011 as the area economy began to shake off the effects of the national recession with strong local job growth and reasonably steady, if not particularly noteworthy, housing starts. Positive retail space absorption of 2.8 million square feet combined with only 1.2 million square feet of new construction resulted in a decline in the overall retail vacancy rate from 7.1 percent in the first quarter of 2011 to 6.7 percent at year-end. However, average quoted rental rates edged down slightly from $14.51 per square foot in the first quarter to $14.35 per square foot in the fourth quarter. Although the retail statistics for the past year aren’t terribly compelling on their own, they are more encouraging in the context of the regional economy in the sense that retail leasing and development activity generally lags the overall economy. The national recession hit Houston in full force in September 2008. The area lost 152,800 jobs through January 2010. In February 2010, Houston began to create new jobs again, and by October 2011, Houston had regained all the jobs lost during the recession. The Greater Houston Partnership projects that the Houston metro area will add …