Dallas-Fort Worth Market Update: Plateauing Vacancy

The month of January brought no variation to the Dallas-Fort Worth market’s office vacancy. According to CommercialEdge, the metro’s rate was 17.6 percent, the same as the one recorded in December. However, the value was 90 basis points lower year-over-year.

When put against similar secondary markets, The Metroplex surpassed Atlanta by 410 basis points but still remained behind Austin, which had a 16.3 percent vacancy rate. The metro’s index also fared worse than the national average of 15.7 percent.

Same as with other markets, asking rents slightly decreased across the metro. The full-service equivalent listing was at $28.66 per square foot, down 4.6 percent month-over-month but up 1.6 percent year-over-year. The national rate was at $38.62 per square foot, 1.2 percent higher year-over-year.

Little change in vacancy was visible in submarkets with inventories larger than 10 million square feet. Plano saw the highest improvement month-over-month, with vacancy dropping from 16.8 to 14.4 percent. On the other hand, Uptown/Oak Lawn recorded negative change, with vacancy rising from 15.5 to 16.6 percent.

However, Uptown Dallas was the stage for one of the metro’s largest leasing deals of January. Frontier Communications leased more than 95,000 square feet at 1919 McKinney Ave., a 104,872-square-foot property owned by ECOM. The telecom company had previously occupied offices in Allen and Irving.

CommercialEdge covers 8M+ property records in the United States. View the latest CommercialEdge national monthly office report here.