(Crystal Proenza is associate editor of Real Estate Florida.)

MIAMI-Commercial real estate in South Florida continues to soften, with occupancy, rents and property values dipping as job losses climb. Unemployment has been on the rise over the past year, with January numbers up a full 2% in Miami-Dade County and 4% in Broward County and Palm Beach County, according to the Beacon Council.

Between January 2008 and January 2009, the tri-county labor force was reduced by 80,800 non-agricultural jobs, or 3.4%, the economic development partnership reports. Despite the continuing economic turmoil, South Florida's unemployment rate stood at 7.6%, almost a full percentage point lower than the national rate of 8.5%.

Local experts say the region differs from other locations in the US that had large employers let go of hundreds of employees all at once. "We have a lot of businesses that still need to operate during this time, so reduction is limited," says Jaap Donath, vice president of research and strategic planning at the Beacon Council. The fact that Miami and Broward have become more diverse in terms of tenancy, including the hundreds of multi-national corporations headquartered here, makes the region less dependent on one or two industries like other markets in the country.