The 5 American cities with the most vacant commercial office space

Across the country, American cities are struggling to contain the economic fallout of the pandemic’s impact on commercial real estate. Within a very short period of time, remote work shifted from being a fringe benefit that some tech organizations offered to a workforce norm across many different industries.

Seeking to cut costs, businesses adopted the work-from-home model, vacating office space permanently. Larger cities with downtown districts built around commercial real estate have been hit particularly hard. According to data from the real estate company Cushman & Wakefield, for example, San Francisco’s office vacancy jumped from 5% to 24% between the last quarter of 2019 and the first quarter of 2022.

An analysis of Cushman & Wakefield real estate data published by fDi Intelligence investigates the U.S. cities that have the most vacant commercial real estate. A subsequent analysis by Visual Capitalist ranks American cities based on their percentage change in office vacancy between the fourth quarter of 2019 and the first quarter of 2023.

“More and more offices in major U.S. cities are empty. At the end of March 2023, the national average vacancy rate of U.S. offices had climbed as high as 18.6%,” reads the analysis by Visual Capitalist published Wednesday. “According to Pew Research Center, around 35% of U.S. workers> who can work from home in 2023 are already doing so all the time. In short, unless trends begin to reverse, offices in many cities will stay empty or continue getting emptier.”

By 2030, a brief by fDi Intelligence projects that more than 300 million square feet of American office space will be deemed obselete, according to the real estate organization Cushman & Wakefield. Notably, the full effect of businesses clearing out of offices hasn’t been felt in many areas because of longer term lease deals that haven’t yet concluded. The office space might not technically be empty because rent is still being paid.

The five American cities with the most vacant offices can be found in the gallery above. Visit Visual Capitalist’s website for a more complete list.