"What's unique about Boston is that it is exceptionally strong in both its Downtown and suburb markets," Ross Moore, vice president and national director of research for Colliers International, tells GlobeSt.com. "No other city can make that statement."

Average rents for the city, at $70 per sf,, are only behind San Francisco. The suburb's average rent of $40 per sf is also the country's second highest. The city's growth rate was 4.5% while growth rate in the suburbs was a remarkable 7.3%. "Anything over 3% to 4% is a good growth rate," Moore points out.

The area's absorption rate--at 2.3 million for the city and 5.2 million for the suburbs--was also impressive, according to Moore, who emphasizes that much of that absorption occurred in the second half of the year, when the economy started to slide. In his breakdown of the numbers, it was the second half of the year that saw 60% of the absorption in the city and 78% of the absorption in the suburbs.