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Real Estate Trends in Pittsburgh

August 2011 – At the end of the second quarter of 2011 the Pittsburgh office market had a vacancy rate of 8.9% according to the Mid-year CoStar Office Report. The vacancy rate was down over the previous quarter, with a net absorption totaling a positive 251,288 square feet in the second quarter of 2011.The overall vacancy rate in the Pittsburgh Central Business District decreased from the first quarter quarter at 11.7% to 11.3% for the second quarter of 2011.

The Parkway West Corridor remains the weakest office market with an overall vacancy rate of 13.1%. Oakland remains the strongest office market with just 1.6% vacancy at end of second quarter 2011.

The graph below shows the “Vacancy Rates by Class” from 2000 through 2011.

A positive trend for Pittsburgh is the number of jobs being added to the local economy. The graph demonstrating the “Total Employment Growth” or total number of jobs added per year from 2001 through 2010 in Pittsburgh vs. the U.S. average depicts a positive trend for our City.

As you can see from the growth, while Pittsburgh lagged compared to the U.S. average in the beginning period of the decade, Pittsburgh weathered the recession of 2008 & 2009 much better than the rest of the U.S. and even outpaced U.S. employment growth in 2008-2010. This is a positive sign for Pittsburgh office landlords as we are not losing and actually starting to add employees in 2011.