LOS ANGELES—According to the 4Q14 report from CBRE, Los Angeles is leading the Southern California office market. At the end of the quarter, Los Angeles County had 946,440 square feet in office absorption—the highest in the region. The L.A. market closed the year with 2.7 million square feet in office absorption, which is six times the annual office absorption of 2013.

Gary Baragona, director of research and analysis for CBRE in Southern California, explains, “Although there has been a noticeable trend with many occupiers looking to reduce their footprints, solid job growth forecasts in the near-term will contribute to sustained growth in the office sector in 2014.”

This is the first time since 2007 that the Los Angeles market has seen office absorption rates over 700,000 square feet. At the end of the year, vacancy rates were at 16% for the greater L.A. area, which is down from 17.1% last year. By comparison, Orange County had an 11.1% vacancy rate, down from 12.5% for the preceding year. Rental rates in the area averaged $2.69 per square foot.

West Los Angeles continues to lead the market. According the report, approximately 56% of the year's lease transactions were completed in the West Los Angeles area. The area is particularly strong in the creative office space. The majority of the leases in the area were signed by media, tech and entertainment industries. Seven of these transactions during the quarter were over 30,000 square feet.