{"id":46166,"date":"2025-11-20T07:47:42","date_gmt":"2025-11-20T04:47:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/blog\/?p=46166"},"modified":"2025-12-18T10:56:53","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T07:56:53","slug":"national-office-report-november-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/blog\/national-office-report-november-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Construction Pipelines Remain Sluggish as Office Utilization Patterns Continue to Settle"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #0bbfeb;\"><strong>Key Takeaways:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The\u00a0<strong>national office\u00a0<em>vacancy rate\u00a0<\/em>was 18.6% in October<\/strong>,\u00a0following a slight decrease of 90 basis points year-over-year.<\/li>\n<li>The\u00a0<strong>national office\u00a0<em>listing rate<\/em>\u00a0averaged $32.81 per square foot<\/strong>\u00a0in October, which was nearly on par with values recorded 12 months prior.<\/li>\n<li>The office supply pipeline remained modest at the start of November with a little more than\u00a0<strong>33 million square feet of office space currently under construction<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Manhattan, N.Y., topped the list for year-to-date sales through October\u00a0<\/strong>in terms of dollar volume ($6.4 billion). It was followed by the Bay Area ($4.4 billion) and Washington, D.C. ($3.6 billion).<\/li>\n<li><strong>Manhattan and Miami each averaged close to 13% vacancy in October<\/strong> \u2014\u00a0the lowest among top U.S. office markets last month.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Midwestern and Southern markets yielded some of the most affordable office asking rates <\/strong>last month, while Western and Northeastern markets asked the highest rates.<\/li>\n<li>The\u00a0<strong>Boston; Manhattan, N.Y.; and Dallas office pipelines were the most active <\/strong>and the only ones to surpass 2 million square feet each of new office space under construction in October.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><span style=\"color: #0bbfeb;\">Trends &amp; Industry News<\/span><\/h3>\n<h2>Growing Competition for Tenants Amid a Continually Adjusting Landscape<\/h2>\n<p>As hybrid work arrangements are now the standard for most firms in the U.S., a full return to the office is not expected any time soon. Although the number of Americans working from home has steadily declined since the peak in 2021, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/blog\/u-s-commute-time-change-hybrid-work-2024\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">it\u2019s still significantly higher than 2019 levels<\/a>. What\u2019s more, office utilization has not evolved equally across metros, partly due to particularities of each metro\u2019s urban and economic ecosystem, as we can see from considering the examples of Austin, Texas, and Manhattan, N.Y.<\/p>\n<p>For instance, according to ACS figures representative of last year, as many as 23% of Austin employees worked from home, whereas that number was a little less than 12% in Manhattan. Meanwhile, office-using jobs accounted for about 30% of total employment in each of the two metros.<\/p>\n<p>Notably, Austin also showed the highest office occupancy at the start of November at 74.6% physical office occupancy relative to February 2020, as measured by Kastle\u2019s 10-city Back-to-Work Barometer. Manhattan was at 57.4%.<\/p>\n<p>As the share of those working from home across the Texas metro increased considerably since the start of the decade, so did the number of office jobs. However, during the same time period, developers delivered nearly 16 million square feet of space (about 16% of stock) \u2014 too much for the robust employment growth to absorb at the same pace \u2014 which pushed the vacancy rate to almost 27% last month. Consequently, the price per square foot in Austin fell significantly this year for the first time since the start of the decade.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201c<em>There is nuance to the intricacies that are driving physical occupancy levels in office markets across the country, but it\u2019s clear New York City has stood out above others in 2025 with increased interest in leasing and investment. What\u2019s more, the city has made a concerted effort to eliminate, reposition or convert obsolete office product.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Peter Kolaczynski, Director, Yardi Research<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Similarly, since 2020, Manhattan added an estimated 16.6 million square feet, which, in the largest office market in the U.S., represented about 3.6% of stock. Although the New York powerhouse saw significantly lower office employment growth than Austin, solid investor interest in the Big Apple has contributed to the vacancy rate here dropping to 13% last month. As such, the sale price per square foot in Manhattan remained the highest in the U.S., despite decreasing in the last two years. Sales activity has also picked up considerably with nearly 60 deals recorded year-to-date.<\/p>\n<p>While development pipelines remain modest at best, a flexibility-oriented approach and creative solutions \u2014 such as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/blog\/top-u-s-cities-office-conversion-feasibility\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">property conversion<\/a> and coworking spaces \u2014 can do a lot to fill the current gap in demand.<\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"color: #0bbfeb;\">Listing Rates &amp; Vacancy<\/span><\/h3>\n<h2>Charlotte, N.C., Market Fundamentals Hold Strong Against Challenging Trends<\/h2>\n<p>The national average full-service equivalent listing rate for office space was $32.81 per square foot in October, which followed a slight uptick of 0.1% Y-o-Y. Meanwhile, the national vacancy rate dipped 90 basis points (bps) compared to the previous year to rest at 18.6% last month.<\/p>\n<p>Although most office markets are still facing some challenges, strong fundamentals continue to uphold success in spite of face-value listing rate and vacancy trends. To that end, Charlotte, N.C., has remained well-positioned even after experiencing a year-over-year increase of 240 bps in vacancy (now nearly 19%) and a 1.2% Y-o-Y dip in the average full-service equivalent listing rate.<\/p>\n<p>For example, even with less than 300,000 square feet of new <a href=\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/office\/us\/nc\/charlotte\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Charlotte office space<\/a> under construction at the start of November, developers here delivered more than 7 million square feet (about 9% of stock) since the start of 2021. And, with the market outpacing other large markets in terms of office-using employment growth for most of the year, demand from local job formation remains robust.<\/p>\n<div id=\"datawrapper-vis-6zZo1\" style=\"min-height: 865px;\"><script type=\"text\/javascript\" defer src=\"https:\/\/datawrapper.dwcdn.net\/6zZo1\/embed.js\" charset=\"utf-8\" data-target=\"#datawrapper-vis-6zZo1\"><\/script><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/datawrapper.dwcdn.net\/6zZo1\/full.png\" alt=\"Top Listings by Metro Area: October 2025 (Table)\" \/><\/noscript><\/div>\n<h3><span style=\"color: #0bbfeb;\">Transactions<\/span><\/h3>\n<h2>Downtown Denver Assets See Significant Resale Discounts<\/h2>\n<p>In October, year-to-date office sales reached nearly $43 billion across transactions averaging $191 per square foot. Despite still lagging behind the peaks of previous office sales booms, the sale price per square foot of office space in the U.S. has been slowly climbing out of the lows of Q1 2024, as has been the case for quarterly sales totals.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, not all office markets are rising at the same speed. For instance, Denver office space was changing hands for $300 per square foot at the market\u2019s most recent peak in 2022, whereas transactions closed since the start of 2025 averaged $125 per square foot.<\/p>\n<p>Furthermore, within that average is a market that\u2019s still rearranging from the 2020 shift. On one hand, the Broe Group confidently kicked off a new office development promising to deliver the largest floorplates in the Cherry Creek submarket. On the other hand, Brookfield Properties sold two downtown Denver office assets at a significant discount from the initial purchase price: Minnesota-based Wayzata Investment Partners purchased the office tower at 717 17<sup>th<\/sup> St. and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/2025\/11\/06\/brookfield-properties-sells-downtown-denver-office-real-estate\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">22 office floors<\/a> at 707 17<sup>th<\/sup> St. for a combined $58.4 million, which was a discount of more than 80% from the roughly $400 million <a href=\"https:\/\/therealdeal.com\/national\/denver\/2025\/11\/10\/brookfield-unloads-denver-offices-at-steep-discounts\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">that Brookfield paid<\/a> for the properties in 2020.<\/p>\n<div id=\"datawrapper-vis-1tOR6\" style=\"min-height: 703px;\"><script type=\"text\/javascript\" defer src=\"https:\/\/datawrapper.dwcdn.net\/1tOR6\/embed.js\" charset=\"utf-8\" data-target=\"#datawrapper-vis-1tOR6\"><\/script><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/datawrapper.dwcdn.net\/1tOR6\/full.png\" alt=\"2025 Year-To-Date Sales (Millions) (Bar Chart)\" \/><\/noscript><\/div>\n<h3><span style=\"color: #0bbfeb;\">Supply<\/span><\/h3>\n<h2>Slow LA Pipeline Focused on Trophy Office Development<\/h2>\n<p>As of October, roughly 33.4 million square feet of office space was under construction across the U.S. markets we tracked for this report. According to Yardi Research data, office construction during the first 10 months of the year added up to nearly 13 million square feet, which was roughly on par with last year\u2019s total. While this represents a slight improvement in what has been a consistently sluggish construction-start pipeline, the current prolonged realignment of the office sector is likely to keep new developments on the slow side.<\/p>\n<p>In particular, Los Angeles was one of the markets where the office construction pipeline slowed considerably after the onset of the pandemic, and that led to one of the lowest vacancy rates among top office markets in the U.S. Consequently, the few office projects to kick off here in recent years are highly amenitized, trophy-grade assets that are designed to attract top-tier tenants. One such example is the JMB Century City Center tower at 1950 Avenue of the Stars. The 37-story high-rise broke ground in 2023 and is slated to deliver more than 700,000 square feet of office space to the Century City, Calif., submarket next year.<\/p>\n<p>Even as some office property owners in the market have struggled to fill large blocks, JMB\u2019s class A+ project <a href=\"https:\/\/la.urbanize.city\/post\/century-city-center-enters-home-stretch-1950-s-ave-stars\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">signed talent agency CAA<\/a> to anchor it with a 400,000-square-foot lease, in addition to 150,000 square feet of space for private equity firm Clearlake Capital.<\/p>\n<p>Nearby, the $15 billion Fox Corporation redevelopment of its historic studio lot <a href=\"https:\/\/la.urbanize.city\/post\/fox-studio-lot-slated-15-billion-overhaul-century-city\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">will reportedly include<\/a> a 24-story media campus featuring both shared and private offices designed for film and television production, as well as a 35-story office tower adjacent to Avenue of the Stars that would present an opportunity for new corporations moving to Century City, Calif.<\/p>\n<div id=\"datawrapper-vis-w7zQr\" style=\"min-height: 655px;\"><script type=\"text\/javascript\" defer src=\"https:\/\/datawrapper.dwcdn.net\/w7zQr\/embed.js\" charset=\"utf-8\" data-target=\"#datawrapper-vis-w7zQr\"><\/script><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/datawrapper.dwcdn.net\/w7zQr\/full.png\" alt=\"Office Space Under Construction (Million Sq. Ft.) (Bar Chart)\" \/><\/noscript><\/div>\n<h3><span style=\"color: #0bbfeb;\">Western Markets<\/span><\/h3>\n<h2>Seattle Sees Highest Vacancy, San Francisco Tops Rents as Development Cools Across Region<\/h2>\n<p>Vacancy rates were above the national average of 18.6% in October in the majority of the Western U.S. markets we surveyed for this report. In fact, aside from Los Angeles (14.6% vacancy) and Phoenix (17.4%), all markets in this group had vacancy rates higher than 20% last month. Among them, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/office\/us\/wa\/seattle\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Seattle office space<\/a>\u00a0saw the highest vacancy rate in the region with 27.4% of space unoccupied. Next, San Francisco was second in the region with vacancy averaging 26% last month. Then, Denver and the Bay Area each had close to 23% vacancy in the office sector.<\/p>\n<p>Partly boosted by performance across the wider suburban tech\u00a0ecosystem, asking rents for\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/office\/us\/ca\/san-francisco\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">office space in San Francisco<\/a> topped the regional list with rates here averaging a little more than $65 per square foot in October \u2014 double the national average of $32.81. Nearby, Bay Area office space remained the second-priciest in the region last month with asking rates approaching nearly $52 per square foot, on average, and closing out the small circle of Western U.S. markets where rates surpassed $50 in October.<\/p>\n<p>Not to be outdone, Los Angeles (#3 with asking rents averaging nearly $47 per square foot) and San Diego (#4 at close to $45 per square foot) closed out the standout block of California markets at the top of the list for rents.<\/p>\n<div id=\"datawrapper-vis-mP0s6\" style=\"min-height: 500px;\"><script type=\"text\/javascript\" defer src=\"https:\/\/datawrapper.dwcdn.net\/mP0s6\/embed.js\" charset=\"utf-8\" data-target=\"#datawrapper-vis-mP0s6\"><\/script><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/datawrapper.dwcdn.net\/mP0s6\/full.png\" alt=\"West Regional Highlights (Table)\" \/><\/noscript><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Otherwise, Phoenix, Denver, and Portland, Ore., remained the only large markets in the region where office asking rates rested below the national average in October, each just below $30 per square foot.<\/p>\n<p>Then, looking at total market office sales in the region, the Bay Area retained its top spot as transactions closed here since the start of the year amounted to nearly $4.4 billion. Further south,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/office\/us\/ca\/los-angeles\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Los Angeles office space<\/a> followed in second place with nearly $2.2 billion in sales closed through the first 10 months of the year. It\u2019s worth noting that San Francisco, San Diego, and Phoenix were the only other markets in the region to see year-to-date sales surpass $1 billion last month.<\/p>\n<p>During that same timeframe, the Bay Area also stood out for sale prices: Since the start of the year, office space here commanded the highest average sale price per square foot in the Western U.S. ($386). That made it the only market in the region where office sales closed for more than $300 per square foot, on average.<\/p>\n<p>California markets also led the region in terms of development last month. Specifically, Los Angeles had nearly 2 million square feet under construction, followed by San Diego with nearly 1.4 million square feet. At the start of October, the other Western U.S. markets we analyzed had less than 1 million square feet of new office space under construction. So, the roughly 850,000 square feet of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/office\/us\/az\/phoenix\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Phoenix office space<\/a> currently in development added up to the third-largest pipeline in the region, followed by development in the Bay Area (nearly 800,000 square feet) and Seattle (730,000 square feet).<\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"color: #0bbfeb;\">Midwestern Markets<\/span><\/h3>\n<h2>Chicago Tops Asking Rates, Twin Cities Boasts Lowest Vacancy<\/h2>\n<p>The top Midwestern U.S. office markets we looked at for this report remained some of the most affordable in the country in October, both in terms of average listing rate and for-sale price per square foot.<\/p>\n<p>First, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/office\/us\/mi\/detroit\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Detroit office space<\/a>\u00a0remained the most accessible in this region with asking rents here averaging less than $22 per square foot. Not far behind, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/office\/us\/mn\/minneapolis\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">office space in Minneapolis<\/a>, St. Paul, and the wider Twin Cities submarkets averaged a little more than $27 per square foot, following an increase of about 4% Y-o-Y. Occupancy levels in the Minnesota market last month also kept vacancy below the national average of 18.6%.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/office\/us\/il\/chicago\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Chicago office space<\/a> was the priciest in the region last month with asking rents averaging more than $28 per square foot, while the vacancy rate here was roughly on par with the national average.<\/p>\n<div id=\"datawrapper-vis-AmHeG\" style=\"min-height: 320px;\"><script type=\"text\/javascript\" defer src=\"https:\/\/datawrapper.dwcdn.net\/AmHeG\/embed.js\" charset=\"utf-8\" data-target=\"#datawrapper-vis-AmHeG\"><\/script><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/datawrapper.dwcdn.net\/AmHeG\/full.png\" alt=\"Midwest Regional Highlights (Table)\" \/><\/noscript><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>As you might expect, Chicago \u2014 the largest office market in the region \u2014 had the highest regional year-to-date office sales total in October. However, the $990 million worth of office space that sold here since the start of the year changed hands for the lowest price among top markets in the region with an average of $64 per square foot. That was well below the national average of $191.<\/p>\n<p>Additionally, construction in the region cooled significantly by the end of October with a combined total of less than 1 million square feet of office space under construction across the Midwestern U.S. markets we analyzed.<\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"color: #0bbfeb;\">Southern Markets<\/span><\/h3>\n<h2>Florida Yields Both Highest &amp; Lowest Asking Rates in Region<\/h2>\n<p>In the South, Miami; Austin, Texas; and Washington, D.C. topped the list in terms of asking rents. They also remained the only Southern U.S. markets to see full-service equivalent listing rates averaging above $40 per square foot in October. At the other end of the ranking, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/office\/us\/fl\/orlando\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">office space in Orlando, Fla.<\/a>, as well as in Houston and Tampa, Fla., had the lowest asking rents in the region, averaging less than $30 per square foot.<\/p>\n<p>Looking at office sales, we found that three of the Southern U.S. office markets we analyzed for this report recorded totals higher than $1 billion during the first 10 months of the year. First, Washington, D.C. had the highest year-to-date sales total as office transactions here amounted to nearly $3.6 billion through October. During that time,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/office\/us\/dc\/washington\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">office space in Washington, D.C.<\/a>\u00a0changed hands for an average of $174 per square foot.<\/p>\n<p>Next, sales of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/office\/us\/tx\/dallas\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Dallas office space<\/a> added up to more than $2.5 billion and represented the second-highest year-to-date total in the region last month. Since the start of 2025,\u00a0office space\u00a0in the Texas metroplex changed hands for an average price of $290 per square foot. Then, in third place, we have\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/office\/us\/ga\/atlanta\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">office space in Atlanta<\/a>, which\u00a0traded for a total of $1.2 billion this year through October.<\/p>\n<div id=\"datawrapper-vis-yF1UD\" style=\"min-height: 572px;\"><script type=\"text\/javascript\" defer src=\"https:\/\/datawrapper.dwcdn.net\/yF1UD\/embed.js\" charset=\"utf-8\" data-target=\"#datawrapper-vis-yF1UD\"><\/script><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/datawrapper.dwcdn.net\/yF1UD\/full.png\" alt=\"South Regional Highlights (Table)\" \/><\/noscript><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Looking at leasing data, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/office\/us\/fl\/miami\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">office space in Miami<\/a>\u00a0had the highest average full-service equivalent listing rate in the region in October at a little more than $56 per square foot. The Florida market also stood out with the lowest office vacancy rate (13.4% last month) among the Southern U.S. markets we compared.<\/p>\n<p>Interestingly, only two other markets in this regional group saw lease rates average more than $40 per square foot last month \u2014 Austin, Texas, and Washington, D.C.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/office\/us\/tx\/austin\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Office space in Austin<\/a>\u00a0asked an average of nearly $46 per square foot, whereas asking rates for Washington, D.C. office space averaged $40.50 per square foot in October.<\/p>\n<p>Austin also had the highest vacancy rate in the region last month (close to 27%), followed by Dallas (22%). Likewise, Washington, D.C., and Houston each averaged a little more than 20% and were the only others among the Southern U.S. markets we analyzed to see vacancy higher than 20% last month.<\/p>\n<p>As for construction, data showed that the three most popular Texas markets carried most of the office pipeline in the region: Last month, nearly 2.6 million square feet of office space was in development in Dallas, and close to 1.6 million square feet was under construction in Austin. Staying in the Lone Star State, Houston (home to the third-largest pipeline in the region) had roughly 1.3 million square feet of office space in development last month. Not far behind, Miami was the only other Southern U.S. market with more than 1 million square feet underway. Together, office development in these four markets accounted for close to 20% of the national development pipeline total at the start of November.<\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"color: #0bbfeb;\">Northeastern Markets<\/span><\/h3>\n<h2>Boston &amp; Manhattan Dominate Asking Rates, Office Sales &amp; Construction<\/h2>\n<p>In October, Manhattan, N.Y., had the highest listing rates in the region at roughly $68 per square foot, on average. Next, Boston was the second-priciest listing market in the Northeast with asking rates here averaging nearly $49 per square foot last month. At the same time, asking rents were nearly $32 per square foot for\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/office\/us\/pa\/philadelphia\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Philadelphia office space<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 the only Northeastern U.S. office market to ask less than the national average of $32.81 per square foot.<\/p>\n<p>Looking at construction, Boston and Manhattan trade ranking places: The Massachusetts market remained in the lead for supply in the region as office projects in development here totaled nearly 4.7 million square feet last month. The\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/office\/us\/ny\/manhattan\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Manhattan, N.Y., office space<\/a>\u00a0pipeline was the second-largest in the region in October with close to 3 million square feet under construction. Together, these two Northeastern U.S. markets accounted for nearly 23% of the national pipeline, totaling roughly 33.4 million square feet in October.<\/p>\n<div id=\"datawrapper-vis-nPhvs\" style=\"min-height: 357px;\"><script type=\"text\/javascript\" defer src=\"https:\/\/datawrapper.dwcdn.net\/nPhvs\/embed.js\" charset=\"utf-8\" data-target=\"#datawrapper-vis-nPhvs\"><\/script><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/datawrapper.dwcdn.net\/nPhvs\/full.png\" alt=\"Northeast Regional Highlights (Table)\" \/><\/noscript><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>And, when considering office sales, the two largest markets in the region swapped positions yet again: Office sales in Manhattan since the start of the year added up to nearly $6.4 billion through October \u2014 the largest year-to-date sales total both in the region and in the country. During those 10 months, office properties here traded for an average of $523 per square foot. This was nearly triple the national average of $191 per square foot and placed the New York market comfortably ahead of the rest for priciest office market in the country.<\/p>\n<p>At quite a distance, Boston and New Jersey had the second- and third-largest year-to-date sales totals, respectively, in the Northeastern U.S. region. Sales of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/office\/us\/ma\/boston\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Boston office space<\/a> since the start of the year added up to nearly $1.2 billion and averaged $158 per square foot. Meanwhile, transactions of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/office\/us\/nj\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">office space in New Jersey<\/a> tallied $1.1 billion through October at an average sale price of $156 per square foot.<\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"color: #0bbfeb;\">Office-Using Employment<\/span><\/h3>\n<h2>Austin Boasts Largest 5-Year Boost in Share of Office Jobs in Local Employment<\/h2>\n<p>Even though the release of employment data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics was delayed for a second month due to the government shutdown, we can rely on private-sector employment research to fill in the gaps.<\/p>\n<p>To that end, ADP data showed that employment in office-using sectors declined by a combined 21,000 jobs in September, led by losses in the information sector, as well as in professional and business services. At the same time, financial activities gained 11,000 jobs. So, considering labor data year-over-year, office-using sectors gained about 197,000 jobs, which marked a modest 0.6% increase in 12 months.<\/p>\n<p>Lastly, metro-level labor data from January 2020 through August 2025 showed that nine of the top 20 U.S. markets saw increases in the percentages of jobs in office-using sectors. Among them, Austin, Texas, stood out for its 190-bps increase, which amounted to office-using jobs accounting for 30% out of total local employment. Otherwise, Orlando, Fla., and Miami saw the second- and third-highest boosts, respectively, followed by Dallas and Tampa, Fla.<\/p>\n<div id=\"datawrapper-vis-LEQyA\" style=\"min-height: 913px;\"><script type=\"text\/javascript\" defer src=\"https:\/\/datawrapper.dwcdn.net\/LEQyA\/embed.js\" charset=\"utf-8\" data-target=\"#datawrapper-vis-LEQyA\"><\/script><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/datawrapper.dwcdn.net\/LEQyA\/full.png\" alt=\"Office-Using Employment: September 2025 (Stacked Bars)\" \/><\/noscript><\/div>\n<h4><span style=\"color: #0bbfeb;\">Methodology<\/span><\/h4>\n<p>This report covers office buildings that are 25,000 square feet or larger.\u00a0Listing rate and occupancy information was based on Yardi Research data.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Listing rates<\/strong> are full-service rates or \u201cfull-service equivalent\u201d for spaces that were available as of the report period.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Vacancy<\/strong> refers to the total square feet vacant in a market (including subleases) divided by the total square feet of office space in that market. Owner-occupied buildings are not included in vacancy calculations. For reporting purposes, A and A+\/trophy buildings were combined.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Stages of the supply pipeline:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Planned \u2014 Buildings that are currently in the process of acquiring zoning approval and permits, but have not yet begun construction.<\/p>\n<p>Under Construction \u2014 Buildings for which construction and excavation has begun.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Office-Using Employment<\/strong> is defined by the Bureau of Labor Statistics as including the sectors Information, Financial Activities, and Professional and Business Services. Employment numbers are representative of the Metropolitan Statistical Area and do not necessarily align exactly with CommercialCafe market boundaries.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sales volume<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0<strong>price-per-square-foot<\/strong>\u00a0calculations for portfolio transactions or those with unpublished dollar values were estimated using sales comps based on sales that were similar in terms of the market and submarket; use type; location and asset ratings; sale date; and property size.<\/p>\n<p>Market boundaries in the CommercialCafe office report coincide with markets defined in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/commercial-markets\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">CommercialCafe Markets Map<\/a> and may differ from regional boundaries defined by other sources.<\/p>\n<h4><span style=\"color: #0bbfeb;\">Fair Use &amp; Redistribution<\/span><\/h4>\n<p>We encourage and freely grant you permission to reuse, host, or repost the research, graphics, and images presented in this article. When doing so, we kindly ask that you credit our research by linking to CommercialCafe.com or this page so that your readers can learn more about this project, the research behind it, and its methodology. For more in-depth, customized data, please contact us at <a href=\"mailto:prinfo@commercialcafe.com\">prinfo@commercialcafe.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There&#8217;s more to this high vacancy and slow construction pipeline than the effects of hybrid office utilization. Read the highlights and insights on industry trends in our full monthly U.S. office markets report. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":45966,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42,4014,39],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-market-reports","category-featured","category-office","wpautop"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v23.4 (Yoast SEO v24.6) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>U.S. Office Market Report November 2025 | CommercialCafe<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Analyzing key trends across the largest office markets in the U.S. for insights on office investment, leasing, vacancy, and construction.\" 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