The amount of vacant industrial real estate in the Houston area is significant, but the absorption rate is much improved from a year ago.
The Houston industrial market had a negative direct absorption of 1.4 million square feet between January and September 2010, according to data released Monday by Cushman & Wakefield of Texas Inc.
The year-to-date figure represents a 9.4 percent direct vacancy rate for Houston’s industrial market, which consists of 343 million square feet of space.
During the first nine months of 2009, Cushman & Wakefield reported a negative direct absorption rate of 2.5 million square feet, nearly double the 2010 figure.
The key difference is the amount of industrial space that was built during the time periods.
A total of 808,696 square feet of space was delivered during the first three quarters of this year. In comparison, 4.2 million square feet of space was built during the same period in 2009.