Vacancy Rates

After four consecutive quarters of decreases, office vacancy rates worsened in west Ventura County in the second quarter, according to a survey by CB Commercial Real Estate Group. The upturn was caused largely by continued defense cutbacks and stagnant growth in service-related businesses, said Tim Grant of CB's Ventura office. Grant said the office vacancy rate in Ventura, Oxnard and Camarillo rose to 25.2% in the second quarter. This compared with 23.9% in this year's first quarter and 25.

If there's a house in your neighborhood that's been for sale for a while, there's a good chance that nobody's home. The number of unoccupied houses around the country has jumped sharply in the last year, according to government figures. For more than a decade, vacancy rates for so-called homeowner housing (as opposed to properties intended to be rentals) have held steady at about 1.7%, but they crept up to 2.1% in 2006. They're at a record 2.

Vacancy rates for commercial properties in Ventura County dropped in the first quarter of 1994, hitting some of the lowest numbers since the late 1980s, according to a report by a commercial real estate group released Friday. Office space vacancies showed the biggest decrease countywide, from 24% in the first quarter of 1993 to 19.2% in the first quarter of 1994. Much of that decrease was due to General Telephone Co.

Tenants took a record 1.04 million square feet of office space off the Orange County market during the third quarter, commercial broker Coldwell Banker reported Friday. But the county's office vacancy rate actually rose during the quarter because many new buildings opened, the brokerage said. The vacancy rate was 21% during the third quarter, up from 20.3% in the second quarter. More than 2 million square feet of new office space came on the market during the quarter.

The Orange County office-space market showed signs of improvement during the first quarter as vacancy rates continued to decline. The decrease was partly because of a virtual absence of any new construction, however. Net absorption--the amount of space taken off the market--totaled 340,136 square feet. That was nearly four times the previous year's first-quarter absorption of 86,812 square feet. A look at O.C.'s office vacancy rate: 1st qtr. '93 1st qtr. '94 Airport area 21.2% 17.2% South 18.

Aside from their look-alike architecture, Orange County's 10 largest commercial office buildings have in common a vacancy rate that is significantly lower than the countywide average of 20.3% Together, the buildings hold 3.55 million square feet--roughly equal to 2,400 three-bedroom houses--with a vacancy rate of 16.2%. And one major commercial broker is expecting overall vacancy rates to decline further as more-cautious lenders tighten the flow of funds available to builders.

The office vacancy rate in the San Fernando Valley edged up to 16.5% in the third quarter from 16.3% in the previous quarter, but remained the lowest rate among the four major regions of Los Angeles County, according to the real estate services firm Grubb & Ellis. In a separate report, Grubb & Ellis said the vacancy rate for office space in Ventura County was unchanged in the quarter that ended Sept. 30, while the retail space rate fell and the rate for industrial space rose.

This has been a turnaround year for Ventura County business, as vacancy rates of industrial parks and office buildings have dropped to pre-recession lows and foreclosures have leveled off for the first time since 1990, analysts reported Monday. The Northridge earthquake, which prompted some Los Angeles County businesses to head north, along with the continued lure of the county's quality of living led to significant boosts in business activity this year, the analysts said.

Los Angeles officials, who have watched for years as North Hollywood maintained a stubbornly high office vacancy rate, hope that redevelopment plans for the area will alleviate the highest vacancy rate in the east San Fernando Valley. A recent study of the East Valley by Charles Dunn Co. puts the direct vacancy rate for office space in North Hollywood at 15.93% for the fourth quarter of 1998. That's more than three times the vacancy rate of neighboring Burbank.

Real estate developer Robert Voit bypassed an opportunity to make a shameless plug for the properties that represent his handiwork. Over a period of 20 years, Voit, president of the Voit Development Co., worked to create a mini-downtown in a series of office buildings in the area of Woodland Hills known as Warner Center. And for years, Warner Center seemed, to many, to be the corporate address in the Valley.