Vacancy rates across the office real estate sector in the U.S. increased in the second quarter of 2025. This was in line with a general trend of rising vacancies that started in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the second quarter of 2025, about **** percent of office space across the country was vacant. In some major U.S. markets, vacancies exceeded ***percent. With a considerable part of the workforce working from home or following a hybrid working model, businesses are cautious when it comes to upscaling or renewing leases. Workplaces may never be the same again The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way that companies operate, with working from home becoming the new normal for many U.S. employees. The function of the office has evolved from the primary workplace to a space where employees collaborate, exchange ideas, and socialize. That has shifted occupiers’ attention toward spaces with modern designs that can accommodate the office of the future. Many businesses used the pandemic time to revisit their office guidelines, remodel, or do a full or partial fit-out. With so much focus on quality, older buildings with poorer design or energy performance are likely to suffer lower demand, resulting in a two-speed market. What do higher vacancy rates mean for investors? Simply put, if landlords do not have tenants, their income stream is disrupted, and they cannot service their debts. April 2023 data shows that several U.S. metros had a significantly high share of distressed office real estate debt. In Charlotte-Gastonia-Concord, NC-SC, more than one-third of the commercial mortgage-backed securities for offices were delinquent, in special servicing, or a combination of both. As of March 2025, offices had the highest delinquency rate in the commercial property sector.

Graph and download economic data for Rental Vacancy Rate in the United States (RRVRUSQ156N) from Q1 1956 to Q2 2025 about vacancy, rent, rate, and USA.

Among the major office markets in the United States, Manhattan had the lowest vacancy rate in the second quarter of 2025. Approximately *****percent of office space was vacant in that quarter, compared to **** percent in San Francisco. Since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, the office real estate sector has been suffering an increase in office vacancies, affecting both downtown and suburban properties. Data on the sales prices of office property also indicates a notable decrease in office real estate valuations.

Graph and download economic data for Rental Vacancy Rate for the United States (USRVAC) from 1986 to 2024 about vacancy, rent, rate, and USA.

View quarterly updates and historical trends for US Home Vacancy Rate. from United States. Source: Census Bureau. Track economic data with YCharts analyti…

In Texas, El Paso was the market with the lowest vacancy rate of office space in 2023. As of the first quarter of the year, roughly ** percent of El Paso office space was vacant compared to about ** percent in Houston. Dallas, which was the largest office market in Texas, had the second highest vacancy rate. Since the coronavirus pandemic outbreak, the U.S. office sector has suffered an increase in office vacancies.

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has led to major cyclical and structural changes in the office real estate sector. As a result of the economic downturn and rising unemployment, along with an increasing share of businesses that introduce the option to work from home, office real estate demand in certain regions worldwide is forecast see a short term decline. In 2022, office real estate vacancy rates are forecast to peak at **** percent in the United States, **** percent in Europe, and **** percent in Greater China. In the Asia Pacific region and in Canada, vacancies are expected to reach their highest point in 2022.

Graph and download economic data for Home Vacancy Rate for the United States (USHVAC) from 1986 to 2024 about vacancy, housing, rate, and USA.

Office vacancy rates increased across most markets in North America between the fourth quarter of 2020 and the fourth quarter 2021. Vancouver, Canada, was the market with the lowest vacancy rate, with ***** percent office space unoccupied. Among the select U.S. markets, Madison, WI, had the lowest vacancy rate at *** percent in that quarter.

This EnviroAtlas dataset portrays the vacancy rate for business addresses for each Census Tract for each year from 2010-2014. Vacant buildings are included if they remained vacant for more than one year. Data were compiled from the United States Postal Service (USPS) Vacant Address Data. This dataset was produced by the US EPA to support research and online mapping activities related to EnviroAtlas. EnviroAtlas (https://www.epa.gov/enviroatlas) allows the user to interact with a web-based, easy-to-use, mapping application to view and analyze multiple ecosystem services for the contiguous United States. The dataset is available as downloadable data (https://edg.epa.gov/data/Public/ORD/EnviroAtlas) or as an EnviroAtlas map service. Additional descriptive information about each attribute in this dataset can be found in its associated EnviroAtlas Fact Sheet (https://www.epa.gov/enviroatlas/enviroatlas-fact-sheets).

Graph and download economic data for Rental and Leasing of Office and Professional Space for Lessors of Real Estate, All Establishments, Employer Firms (LORERALOOAP45311) from 2015 to 2022 about lessors, employer firms, professional, leases, establishments, real estate, rent, and USA.

Mission Bay district of San Francisco had over 300,000 square feet of office space under construction in the first quarter of 2023. This placed it as the district with the highest amount of new office space supply in San Francisco. Only three districts, out of twelve, reported construction of new office space in this period.

The office real estate leasing market in the United States was severely affected by the coronavirus pandemic. Before the pandemic, the average vacancy rate of downtown offices was **** percent and in 2023, it increased to **** percent. Suburban offices were less affected, with the vacancy rate rising from **** percent to **** percent.

The Commercial Real Estate (CRE) industry is exhibiting significant variations across markets, with persistently high office vacancy rates juxtaposed against thriving prime office spaces. Hard hit by the widespread adoption of remote and hybrid work models, the overall office vacancy rate rose to 20.7% in Q2 2025, up from the pre-pandemic rate of 16.8%. However, leasing volumes for prime office spaces are climbing, providing opportunities for seasoned investors. On the other hand, the multifamily sector is gaining from a prominent move towards renting, primarily driven by housing affordability concerns and changing lifestyle preferences. This has strengthened demand for multifamily properties and opportunities to convert underutilized properties, such as offices, into residential rentals. The industrial real estate segment is also moderating, with the boom in e-commerce and industrial construction activity in 2021 and 2022 moderating more recently. Industry revenue has gained at a CAGR of 1.7% to reach $1.5 trillion through the end of 2025, including a 1.0% climb in 2025 alone. The industry is grappling with multiple challenges, including wide buyer-seller expectation gaps and significant disparities in demand across different geographies and asset types. Despite interest rate cuts in 2024 and 2025, economic uncertainty and labor market weakness have resulted in tighter credit and lending conditions. Because of remote working trends, office delinquency rates swelled to above 14.0% in 2025, leading to a job market increasingly concentrated in certain urban centers. Through the end of 2030, the CRE industry is expected to stabilize as the construction pipeline shrinks, reducing new supply and, in turn, rebalancing supply and demand dynamics. With this adjustment, occupancy rates will likely improve, and rents may gradually climb. The data center segment will witness accelerating demand propelled by the rapid expansion of artificial intelligence, cloud computing and the Internet of Things. Likewise, mixed-use properties are poised to gain popularity, driven by the growing appeal of flexible spaces that accommodate diverse businesses and residents. This new demand, coupled with the retiring baby boomer generation's preference for leisure-centric locales, is expected to push the transformation of traditional shopping plazas towards destination centers, offering continued opportunities for savvy CRE investors. Industry revenue will expand at a CAGR of 1.9% to reach $1.7 trillion in 2030.

United States Housing Vacancy Rate: Rental data was reported at 6.800 % in Jun 2018. This records a decrease from the previous number of 7.000 % for Mar 2018. United States Housing Vacancy Rate: Rental data is updated quarterly, averaging 7.400 % from Mar 1956 (Median) to Jun 2018, with 250 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 11.100 % in Sep 2009 and a record low of 5.000 % in Dec 1981. United States Housing Vacancy Rate: Rental data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by US Census Bureau. The data is categorized under Global Database’s USA – Table US.EB008: Housing Vacancy and Home Ownership Rate.

In the first quarter of 2025, office availability rates in the UK were the lowest in Birmingham, at **** percent. Other cities such as Manchester and Bristol had higher vacancy rates. England's busiest office market, London, had a vacancy rate exceeding ** percent in 2024.The vacancy rate is the percentage of available office rental units that are vacant or unoccupied during a given time. High vacancy rates in a city can mean that supply is outweighing demand, or that the quality of particular properties available not meeting the desired demands of the rental market. After the COVID-19 outbreak, demand for offices has declined, leading to increased vacancies across most markets.

The residential vacancy rate is the percentage of residential units that are unoccupied, or vacant, in a given year. The U.S. Census Bureau defines occupied housing units as “owner-occupied” or “renter-occupied.” Vacant housing units are not classified by tenure in this way, as they are not occupied by an owner or renter.

The residential vacancy rate serves as an indicator of the condition of the area’s housing market. Low residential vacancy rates indicate that demand for housing is high compared to the housing supply. However, the aggregate residential vacancy rate is lacking in granularity. For example, the housing market for rental units in the area and the market for buying a unit in the same area may be very different, and the aggregate rate will not show those distinct conditions. Furthermore, the vacancy rate may be high, or low, for a variety of reasons. A high vacancy rate may result from a falling population, but it may also result from a recent construction spree that added many units to the total stock.

The residential vacancy rate in Champaign County appears to have fluctuated between 8% and 14% from 2005 through 2022, reaching a peak near 14% in 2019. In 2023, this rate dropped to about 7%, its lowest value since 2005. However, this rate was calculated using the American Community Survey’s (ACS) estimated number of vacant houses per year, which has year-to-year fluctuations that are largely not statistically significant. Thus, we cannot establish a trend for this data.

The residential vacancy rate data shown here was calculated using the estimated total housing units and estimated vacant housing units from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates, which are released annually.

As with any datasets that are estimates rather than exact counts, it is important to take into account the margins of error (listed in the column beside each figure) when drawing conclusions from the data.

Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, instead of providing the standard 1-year data products, the Census Bureau released experimental estimates from the 1-year data in 2020. This includes a limited number of data tables for the nation, states, and the District of Columbia. The Census Bureau states that the 2020 ACS 1-year experimental tables use an experimental estimation methodology and should not be compared with other ACS data. For these reasons, and because data is not available for Champaign County, no data for 2020 is included in this Indicator.

For interested data users, the 2020 ACS 1-Year Experimental data release includes a dataset on Occupancy Status.

Sources: U.S. Census Bureau; American Community Survey, 2023 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates, Table B25002, generated by CCRPC staff; using data.census.gov; (17 October 2024).; U.S. Census Bureau; American Community Survey, 2022 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates, Table B25002, generated by CCRPC staff; using data.census.gov; (25 September 2023).; U.S. Census Bureau; American Community Survey, 2021 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates, Table B25002, generated by CCRPC staff; using data.census.gov; (4 October 2022).; U.S. Census Bureau; American Community Survey, 2019 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates, Table B25002, generated by CCRPC staff; using data.census.gov; (8 June 2021).; U.S. Census Bureau; American Community Survey, 2018 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates, Table B25002, generated by CCRPC staff; using data.census.gov; (8 June 2021).; U.S. Census Bureau; American Community Survey, 2017 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates, Table B25002, generated by CCRPC staff; using American FactFinder; (13 September 2018).; U.S. Census Bureau; American Community Survey, 2016 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates, Table B25002, generated by CCRPC staff; using American FactFinder; (14 September 2017).; U.S. Census Bureau; American Community Survey, 2015 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates, Table B25002, generated by CCRPC staff; using American FactFinder; (19 September 2016).; U.S. Census Bureau; American Community Survey, 2014 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates, Table B25002; generated by CCRPC staff; using American FactFinder; (16 March 2016).; U.S. Census Bureau; American Community Survey, 2013 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates, Table SB25002; generated by CCRPC staff; using American FactFinder; (16 March 2016).; U.S. Census Bureau; American Community Survey, 2012 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates, Table B25002; generated by CCRPC staff; using American FactFinder; (16 March 2016).; U.S. Census Bureau; American Community Survey, 2011 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates, Table B25002; generated by CCRPC staff; using American FactFinder; (16 March 2016).; U.S. Census Bureau; American Community Survey, 2010 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates, Table B25002; generated by CCRPC staff; using American FactFinder; (16 March 2016).; U.S. Census Bureau; American Community Survey, 2009 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates, Table B25002; generated by CCRPC staff; using American FactFinder; (16 March 2016).; U.S. Census Bureau; American Community Survey, 2008 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates, Table B25002; generated by CCRPC staff; using American FactFinder; (16 March 2016).; U.S. Census Bureau; American Community Survey, 2007 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates, Table B25002; generated by CCRPC staff; using American FactFinder; (16 March 2016).; U.S. Census Bureau; American Community Survey, 2006 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates, Table B25002; generated by CCRPC staff; using American FactFinder; (16 March 2016).; U.S. Census Bureau; American Community Survey, 2005 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates, Table B25002; generated by CCRPC staff; using American FactFinder; (16 March 2016).

Vacancy rate of Office Buildings

Graph and download economic data for Rental Vacancy Rate for Idaho (IDRVAC) from 1986 to 2024 about ID, vacancy, rent, rate, and USA.

The Arlington Profile combines countywide data sources and provides a comprehensive outlook of the most current data on population, housing, employment, development, transportation, and community services. These datasets are used to obtain an understanding of community, plan future services/needs, guide policy decisions, and secure grant funding. A PDF Version of the Arlington Profile can be accessed on the Arlington County website.