The combination of rent growth and absorption ranks 2004 as "second only to the year 2000" as one of the top years ever for the county's office market, says Voit VP Jerry Holdner, chief of research for the firm. Voit tells GlobeSt.com that the county ended the year with a direct vacancy rate of slightly more than 9.6%, a 23% decrease from the 12.4% rate at the end of last year. The total amount of direct and sublease office space available in Orange County also decreased, finishing the year at just under 12.7%, compared with slightly more than 18.6% in the fourth quarter of 2003--a decrease of nearly 19.3% in the amount of available space.Rental rates have been inching upward too, Holdner tells GlobeSt.com, with the average asking full service gross lease rate at $2.09 per sf per month, a 5% increase over last year's fourth quarter rate of $1.99. The fourth quarter of 2004 marked the fourth consecutive quarter of lease rate growth, and Holdner foresees more growth. He expects rental rates to increase "at moderate levels in the short run," and to finish 2005 at 7% to 10% higher than they are now, with landlords reducing concessions as the county's economy continues to improve.The fourth quarter posted 689,260 sf in net absorption, giving the county a total of almost seven million sf of positive absorption for the last 10 quarters. The two big drivers of the market, geographically, were the John Wayne Airport area, which accounted for nearly 1.6 million sf of the county's 2004 absorption, and South Orange County, which tallied more than one million sf of absorption for the year. At the same time the market was absorbing space, construction increased to slightly more than 625,000 sf under way in the fourth quarter of 2004, almost double what it was at this time last year.The big boost to the county's office market this week was Broadcom Corp.'s commitment to a 10-year, $183-million lease for 685,000 sf of space at the Irvine Co.'s University Research Center at the University of California at Irvine. As reported this week on GlobeSt.com, the communications giant is expected to begin moving into the new space in 2006, relocating from more than 400,000 sf elsewhere in Irvine.