ATLANTA—Occupancy gains boosted the Atlanta office market with 712,898 square feet of direct net absorption recorded during the fourth quarter. That pushed year-end absorption gains to just over 1.7 million square feet. That's according

“This is no surprise given that Atlanta continues to witness robust job growth with 57,000 jobs created over the trailing 12-month period and over half a million jobs since the Great Recession ended in 2010,” Bill Weghorst, president of PMRG's Eastern Division, tells GlobeSt.com. “Atlanta remains an economic powerhouse as companies flock to our region thanks to our proximity to an excellent talent pool of highly skilled workers, our great university system and our lower cost of living compared to the more traditional gateway markets.”

(What really drove a decline in transaction volume? Check out one opinion.)