ORANGE COUNTY, CA-Recovery seems to be hitting theoffice sector as the amount of vacant andavailable space decreases and positive absorption comes to thearea. As GlobeSt.com reported earlier this week, high demand forclass-A space has driven office vacancy rates inOrange County down into the single digits and is spurringsignificant growth in asking rents, according to Jones LangLaSalle, and Voit Real Estate Servicesreports that few new deliveries in the pipeline to apply upwardpressure on vacancy means that the market will continue tostabilize.

Jerry Holdner, Jr., VP of market research, andTony Tran, market research analyst, said in thereport, “We foresee an overall increase ininvestment activity in the coming quarters.Lease rates have begun to firm up, and we expectthem to increase in 2013. We should also see an increase inleasing activity as many short-term deals come upfor renewal. As job creation continues and consumer confidencestabilizes, the office market will continue to recover.”

Jeff Ingham, senior managing director of JonesLang LaSalle, tells GlobeSt.com that over the past couple of years,it's been difficult to determine the pace at which the OrangeCounty office market has been recovering and how long it was goingto be until it was back to a more balanced leasing environmentbetween tenants and landlords. “Over the past two years, more than58,000 jobs have been added in the county, and vacancy rates havefallen from the mid-20s to the mid-teens. Despite theseimprovements, average asking rates for the overall market have beenpretty flat.”