FT. LAUDERDALE, FL-After three years of contraction, roughly 700 office-using jobs are forecast to be created in Broward County in 2010, a 0.2% gain, according to Marcus & Millichap’s Office Research Market Update for the second quarter. But newly-hired workers are not expected to stimulate demand for new space, because 2.7 million square feet of empty space has accumulated, which will be filled first, according to the report.

In recent months, there has been some increased interest by investors in the purchase of office buildings, according to Marcus & Millichap, because they foresee a little more demand for space and are heartened by the lack of new construction in the county. The only reason there hasn’t been a lot of sales activity is that few properties have been for sale in the last 12 months. The report did not list any specific sales of office buildings.

Investors, by and large, seek out the class A properties even though their performance has declined as the recession has continued. Cap rates, although variable, depending on location and asset, have averaged from the high 8% to the low 9% range for solid, class B properties, according to the report. There have been few class A sales of late, but their cap rates are probably 100 basis points lower than for the class B properties which have sold, according to Marcus & Millichap.