HOUSTON--Savills Studley, the commercial realestate services firm, has released exclusive new Q3 findings on thestate of Houston's office market.

Among the highlights:

• Class A Availability is Up: As hiring andleasing slow, the region's class A availability rate inched 0.7 pplower to 17.5 percent in the third quarter, but has jumped by 3.8pp year-on-year. In addition, the class A availability rate hassoared by 12.3 pp to 18.1 percent in Katy Freeway and jumped by 9.4pp to 30.3% percent in Northwest/290 Far.

• Overall Rents Rose: The region's overallaverage asking rent rose by 1.0 percent to $28.05 during the thirdquarter and has spiked by 15.1 percent year-on-year. Class A rentfell by 0.9 percent to $34.87 in the quarter but has jumped by 11.0percent compared to a year ago.

• Leasing Rose: Leasing activity increased,rising by 6.0 percent to 3.5 msf in the quarter, slightly above themarket's five-year average. Class A deal volume jumped by 23.0percent to 2.0 msf, with strong increases in activity in KatyFreeway (590,118 square feet) and West Loop/Galleria (320,236square feet).

Savills Studley's office outlook for the near future?

"Some Houston real estate industry experts have growingconcern that the combination of rapidly dropping energy prices andsoft energy demand could spell the end of the longest sustainedpositive office market in the past 30 years," SteveBiegel, executive vice president and co-branch manager atSavills Studley, told GlobeSt.com. "Wary veterans of Houston'shistorically cyclical real estate market are wondering if thecloudy future for the energy industry, combined with the prospectof increasing interest rates, will produce the nextdownturn."