Preliminary numbers indicate that third quarter vacancy rates for 54 metropolitan statistical areas across the country are at 12.3%, up from 10.8% in the second quarter and 9.5% in the first quarter. For the MSA of Boston, third quarter vacancy rates are 12.1%, which is a little better than the national average but this area's jump from the second quarter--which saw vacancy rates of 8.7%--was much higher. "Boston was performing better than the overall picture," Xochitl Leon, an analyst in the strategic consulting group at Torto Wheaton Research, tells GlobeSt.com. "Now it is closer to the overall picture."

Leon attributes this area's jump in vacancy rates to the construction going on in the suburban markets. "There is a mini-building boom of sorts in the MetroWest market," she points out. "It's not as overbuilt as the last recession but there is still a lot of construction compared with the last five years."

According to Leon, since 1990, this area built an average of two million sf a year. As of 1999, the area was building an average of 3.5 million sf a year. Over the next five years, the area can expect an average of five million sf a year to be built and in 2001 Leon notes that 7.3 million sf is expected to be built, with five million sf already completed. In 2004, 6.1 million sf is expected to be built but Leon says that some of those projects could still be cancelled. "Since 1988, we haven't seen this high level of construction," says Leon. "That year we saw 7.4 million sf built but ever since then, the number dropped. It has to do with the recent booming economy, but these buildings are coming in a little late."