Demand for commercial real estate space will escalate over the next two years in response to growth in the U.S. economy and a rise in exports, according to the National Association of Realtors."New jobs are filling office and industrial space, and vacancies will generally decline in the commercial real estate market," said David Lereah, the NAR's chief economist. "A silver lining to the recent slide of the U.S. dollar on foreign currency markets is an expected boost to U.S. exports that could also stimulate foreign purchase of U.S. commercial property." In its Commercial Real Estate Quarterly," the NAR said office vacancy rates in 57 metropolitan markets tracked by the organization are likely to fall from 16.2% this year to 15.3% next year and 14.1% in 2006. Net absorption of office space (which includes leasing of both new and existing space) will nearly triple to 55.9 million square feet this year from 20.0 million in 2003, the NAR said. The organization projects that 50.4 million square feet will be absorbed next year, and 59.7 million square feet in 2006. The NAR can be found on the Internet at http://realtor.org.
