Forecast Sees Industrial Uptick, Office Lagging
NOI Strategies News Alert
By Bob Howard
... Economic forces could boost the Southern California industrial markets next year, but the office sector will continue to languish, according to the latest USC Lusk Center Casden Forecast, issued this morning...
... The office market will have to wait a while, however. The office sector recovery should begin in 2011, thanks to "expected growth nationwide in green technology, education and healthcare," according to Tracey Seslen, co-author of the forecast. Seslen says that, "Considerable downward pressures on office rents will continue" next year, due to job losses across the board. However, she adds, "The resulting drop in the value of many vacant office buildings will present new opportunities for cash buyers willing to wait out this downturn."
Richard K. Green, director of the USC Lusk Center and a forecast co-author, points out that although the Inland Empire's Riverside and San Bernardino counties have some of the highest unemployment rates in the country, "companies located in coastal areas will be setting up satellite offices in the Inland Empire where there is sufficient land and cheaper rental rates." Parts of the region will wait a long time for recovery, he points out, especially San Bernardino, which was substantially overbuilt...