The affects of the severe downturn in financial services, which has plagued Boca Raton's office market, as an example, look worse on paper, because Boca Raton is a relatively small submarket, with only 11.4 million square feet, says Erickson. In these submarkets, the loss of a large tenant becomes magnified.

An even clearer example of the magnification phenomenon can be found in Palm Beach County's Delray Beach submarket, which has only 1.4 million square feet and a 58.9% vacancy rate, which is due to the loss, nearly a year and a half ago, of Office Depot, a huge tenant. But the office supply retailer, which now resides in a 625,000-square-foot space in Boca Raton, moved only two and a half miles away, says Erickson. In a place like Delray Beach, "even a 10,000 square foot lease can move the dial," he says.

The Palm Beach County office market, and the Boca Raton submarket in particular, are stabilizing, says Erickson, but it is hard to characterize them as doing well. The Boca Raton market, in first quarter 2010, according to the CB Richard Ellis MarketView report, had a total vacancy rate of 29.5%. Corporate cut-backs,as well as the financial meltdown, have taken their toll, says Erickson. When Washington Mutual moved out of its 170,000-square-foot-space a little over a year ago, that really hurt, he says.