ABQ office vacany rate at 18%

ALBUQUERQUE (AP) - The vacancy rate for office space in the Albuquerque metro area has been stuck at 18 percent or higher for three years running with no end in sight.

The Albuquerque Journal reports ( http://bit.ly/R6MQfD ) that the average asking lease rate appears to have bottomed out at the level of mid-2007.

Office construction is at a standstill.

Office real estate and commercial real estate in general tend to absorb the front end of recessions pretty well and then lag behind any recovery.

Real estate experts say office leases during the pre-recession boom years were typically for five-year terms, although many were also for three years or seven years.

Now that five-year leases signed in 2007 are expiring, downsized businesses are shrinking their real estate footprint by leasing smaller spaces.