As the federal government tries its best to monitor growth and stem inflation (see box below), local village and city economies continue on their paths to recovery from the great recession which began over a decade ago. Quietly and assuredly, overall direct suburban vacancy and availability rates compressed over the past year from 19.45% to 17.06% and 21.35% to 21.25%, respectively, while gross asking rents increased by almost a dollar and half to $24.24psf. Although the first half of 2018 saw only 2.5 million sf of leasing deals inked, it also witnessed its first string of three, consecutive, half-way marks/six-month periods of positive net absorption since 2013 with 456,280 sf added to the metro’s ledgers*.

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