NEW YORK CITY-Don’t look for Midtown Manhattan in a global listof the top 10 markets for office occupancy costs. It won’t be foundin a list of the top 20, either. The most expensive office marketin North America, Midtown comes in at 26th worldwide with anaverage occupancy cost (including rent and other expenses) of$66.59 per square foot as of Sept. 30. That’s a 4.5% year-over-yeardecline and just over one-third the $193.69 average per square footcommanded in London’s West End.

So says CB Richard Ellis in its semiannual Global Office Rentssurvey, released Wednesday. Of the 175 markets surveyed worldwide,99 are in the same situation as Midtown Manhattan: i.e. theiroccupancy costs, led by rents, have fallen year over year.

Even so, with only a 1.3% average decline globally in the past12 months, office rents are stabilizing, according to CBRE. Thatcompares to a 6% year-over-decline the last time the survey wasconducted, Dr. Raymond Torto, CBRE’s global chief economist, saidon a New York-based conference call Wednesday.