CHICAGO—The US office market was relatively stable in the third quarter, and in many of the most active cities, the tech sector supplied the fuel, according to a new report from Cushman & Wakefield. Although dozens of markets across the US saw some negative absorption, that was off-set by big gains for top tech cities such as Santa Clara, CA, Brooklyn, Seattle Raleigh/Durham, and San Diego. Each recorded more than one million square feet of positive absorption in the first three quarters of 2017, with Santa Clara reaching nearly 3.4 million.

“We were thinking last year that the tech sector was slowing down a bit, but it came roaring back this year,” Ken McCarthy, C&W's principal economist, tells GlobeSt.com. “Overall, the tech sector continues to play an important role, both in the national economy, and the real estate market.”

But he emphasizes that there has been a lot of “ebb and flow” within the office market, and he expects that will continue. The US office sector should see growth over the next year, for example, but much of it will probably come from Sun Belt markets such as Atlanta, Phoenix, and Florida, places that may not be tech-centric, but are expected to see a solid amount of job growth and in-migration. In short, tech will be important in the future, but it's also not magic.