In a recent third quarter report put out by Cushman & Wakefield, the overall vacancy rate has soared up to 16.5%, up drastically from last year's 5.3%. But Thomas Collins, senior managing director for the firm's New England offices, maintains that it is largely the sublease space that is to blame for the increase in vacancies, indicating that the market here is not in real trouble. In the city's central business district, vacancy rates were up to 11.1% for this quarter from 7.4% in the first quarter. Collins notes that 4% of the vacancy rate is due to sublease space with only 7.1 % direct vacancy. " That would be considered favorable anywhere," he tells GlobeSt.com. "We don't have a real estate problem, we have an economic problem."

Collins points out that the economy was growing at an unbelievable 6% too 8% until recently and now companies simply need less space. Rates are still averaging around $50 per sf in the CBD and over $60 per sf in the Class A building market.

Cambridge's vacancy rates are considerably higher for this past quarter at 13.7%, whereas a year ago the rate here 2%. But again Collins points out that 6.7% of that is direct space. The rest is in subleases from the tech firms and dot-coms that at one time dominated the market here and now either consolidated or went out of business.