New York Market Overview

Manhattan office vacancy rates declined in May on the strongest leasing activity in more than three years. Manhattan's overall office vacancy rate dropped to 11.3 percent in May from 11.5 percent in April. For the same time period, the overall Midtown Manhattan vacancy rate declined to 12.1 percent from
12.5 percent and the Midtown South vacancy rate declined to 9.6 percent from 9.8 percent. Downtown, the vacancy rate increased slightly to 10.0 percent from 9.9 percent. May was also the strongest month for new office leasing activity in Manhattan since September 2006, with 2.6 million square feet of new office leases signed during the month, a 221 percent increase over May 2009.