Vacancy rates for office space tightened up just a bit in the same time, decreasing to 17.58% for all grades of office space. Class-A office space vacancy was at 16.76% in the fourth quarter 2004, a decrease of 36 basis points.

In Detroit, Class-A office vacancy rates increased 127 basis points to 14.74% in the fourth quarter. The Birmingham/Bloomfield submarket, with 2.27 million sf of class-A space, showed the biggest decline in vacancy, as vacancy declined four percentage points to 10.13%, the lowest overall vacancy rate for class-A space in any of the major Detroit submarkets. In the largest office submarket, the 7.54-million-sf Southfield/Bingham Farms area, Signature says class-A vacancy decreased 128 basis points to 20.82 percent.

In the industrial market, Redford reported a 6-point decrease in vacancy from the third to fourth quarter. That suburb's 5.59 million sf of industrial space now has a 17.91% vacancy rate.