Workers without jobs and offices without tenants have grown throughout the year. The Austin area's' unemployment rate grew from 2.2% in January to 4.5% in October. The office vacancy rate was 16.1% at the end of September.

"The unemployment increase is a double-edged sword," Breier says. "All of a sudden there are other areas that are now looking at us saying, 'I can get quality intellectual capital in Austin now.' Where, when you're at 1.8% (unemployment rate), they wouldn't even look at us.

"We also have the types of facilities that are on the market and that, when you compare the rental rate for those facilities with places like Portland and San Jose, we compare very, very favorably."