Though G&E reports construction activity continued to creep higher each quarter, they note absorption has managed to keep pace. G&E senior vice president and research director Robert Bach attributes the parity to a number of factors, including strong imports, still-healthy corporate profits, retail sales that have held up reasonably well despite the housing crash and the ongoing re-engineering of supply chains, often with the assistance of third-party logistics companies. He predicts demand for space will remain moderate over the next few quarters, with little overbuilding and broadly stable rental rates.

Two Canadian markets, Calgary and Edmonton, are tied for the top position with an astonishingly low vacancy rate of 1.2%, while a third Canadian city, Vancouver, is tied with Los Angeles for third with an almost equally attractive rate of 1.5%. The remaining top markets include two small Montana cities, Bozeman and Kalispell, both with a rate of 2%; Fresno, CA at 2.6%; Oakland-East Bay, CA at 2.8%; Regina, Saskatchewan at 3%; and Wichita, KS and Bakersfield, CA tied for 10th at 3.5%. The bottom 10 markets include Sacramento, CA, Oklahoma City, Memphis, TN, Kalamazoo, MI, Richmond, VA, Raleigh, NC, Detroit, Atlanta, Boston and Pittsburgh, with rates from 11.7% to 19.4%.