Texas

2011 was a good year for the Dallas office market with above average demand, minimal new construction and two quarters of rising overall asking rates. If you look at the Dallas office market since 2001, a typical year net absorption is usually about 800,000 square feet. In 2011, the Dallas market recorded more than 1.6 million square feet. New construction (excluding owner-occupied properties) averages 2.5 million square feet for that same time period, but a little more than 200,000 square feet was completed in 2011. Still, the overall total vacancy rate remains higher than normal at 22.5 percent. Keep in mind Dallas, with its abundance of land and pro-development climate, rarely dips below 20 percent vacancy. The average total vacancy since 2001 is 21.4 percent. Typically if it nears 20 percent, the construction cycle picks up again and more new product is brought to the market. That’s about where the market is headed at this point. Developers have not made any official announcements for new construction yet, but more than a few are prepared to break ground on potential projects in a few submarkets (Far North Dallas and the Dallas CBD being two of the more likely submarkets). Unless there …