Throughout the United States it is easy to see signs of the ongoing struggles in our office real estate market. From the years-old “For Lease,” signs outside the office towers to continuous news of foreclosures and high occupancy rates, it is clear that challenges in the office market will continue for years and even decades to come.

The pandemic kicked off these issues in early-2020, and the resulting shift to work from home has proven to be the largest challenge any sector of the U.S. real estate market faced since the 2008 Financial Crisis. With the pandemic thankfully fading, the market’s hope for return to the office initiatives has failed to materialize given the continued tight labor market and workers’ desire for remote work as an employment perk. Whether employers can implement return to office initiatives when the labor market softens remains to be seen. Regardless of the causes and potential solutions, the effects and challenges are clear. The U.S. office market’s vacancy rate at the end of 2023 hovered around 20 percent. This marks an increase from vacancy rates in the low-teens throughout the latter-half of the 2010s.

The headlines tell the tale of this market on a weekly, if not daily basis. Prestigious towers that have been fixtures in various city skylines face financial challenges, foreclosure or redevelopment. Other, smaller buildings in various cities’ cores and surrounding suburbs face similar challenges. All this doom and gloom begs the question: What can individuals and companies who have a stake in this office market do to navigate these challenging conditions and ensure future success?

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