CHICAGO-Tenants, listen up: The bottom has been hit, and this is the best time to act on that office space you’re thinking about, according to the recently released second quarter Jones Lang LaSalle North American office outlook.

Vacancy declined across the major US markets for the first time since 2007, ending Q2 at 18.2%, down 30 basis points from 18.5%. Also, JLL says, rents remained level for the first time in the past eight quarters. Finally, subleasing declined for the third straight quarter, decreasing by more than nine million square feet since October 2009.

“Corporations are still rightsizing, but the typical office user is maintaining their space,” says John Sikaitis, director of office research for the locally-based company. “And from a demand standpoint, tenants are now starting to realize that the tide is turning, and that this is probably the best opportunity to negotiate a deal.”

Of course, JLL is not saying that recovery is right around the corner. While there has been slight job growth, there’s a lot of digging out to do before there’s a full-throttle expansion of the office market. However, there are many signs of increased leasing activity and tour velocity, especially in markets such as New York City, San Francisco, Atlanta, Boston, Washington, DC, Houston, Dallas and Miami, according to the company.

The sublease news is also good, as numerous tenants removed blocks of space they had placed on the market in the past quarters, in order to accommodate pending growth, JLL says. More than a few tenants even leveraged market conditions and took additional space to accommodate future growth and still-discounted space during the second quarter.

Sikaitis says there is an anomaly to the expected trend, however. Usually, financial firms are first to re-enter a market, but this uptick has seen strong demand from the government, health care, energy, education and technology sectors, he says. “For example, in Washington, DC, you’re seeing people laid off from Wall Street take jobs with the Treasury Department,” Sikaitis tells GlobeSt.com.

There is some fear of a second recession, but JLL researcher Ben Breslau says instead of a “double-dip,” the economy will likely go through a “dip and a pause.” “Large office users are still not growing, which should maintain some slack in space fundamentals over the coming quarters and slow recovery,” Breslau says. “We are likely to see absorption levels bounce up and down from negative to positive over the coming quarters as the recovery remains segmented by industry and geography.”