has been slumpingsince early last year,

The vacancy rate in the county's 247-million-sf industrialmarket increased to 3.8% in the quarter from 3.1% in the secondquarter, and the availability rate rose to 7.5% from last quarter's6.8%, according to CBRE. Voit Commercial Brokerage cites similarfigures, reporting that the vacancy rate reached 4.38% in thequarter—compared with 3.82% a year ago—while the availability raterose to 7.86% versus 5.93% a year ago. While the vacancies aresubstantially lower than those in the office market, industrialvacancies typically run lower than office statistics.

Voit pegs the negative net absorption in the county's industrialmarket at a far lower number than CBRE, only 26,101 sf, but the twocompanies' reports are difficult to compare in some respectsbecause they track different inventories and have different methodsfor accounting for space. Voit, for example, separates out R&Dspace from manufacturing/distribution space, which accounts forsome of the differences in the two firms' figures. In generalterms, however, both firms report Orange County industrial numbersthis year that represent a change of direction for a market thathas perennially been one of the strongest in the nation. CBRE notesthat, based on square footage, industrial leases in the thirdquarter were approximately 13% smaller on average than in the thirdquarter of 2007.