Orange County's financial services industry is turning out to be the silver lining in this downturn. In 2008, the market's overexposure to mortgage companies caused a major disruption to the office market. This time, the industry is driving leasing activity.

Research from JLL shows the financial services industry is responsible for 27% of large block leasing activity this year. Mortgage companies have benefitted from increased refinancing business due to low interest rates, and they are expanding. "The bulk of mortgage company business is in refinancing. When interest rates are low, people are refinancing constantly, and that is the driver behind the growth in business," Jeff Ingham of JLL tells GlobeSt.com. "The mortgage markets froze at the beginning of the pandemic, but once interest rates dropped, people started refinancing. Now, we are truly benefitting from it."

This business is also driving some office space expansion for mortgage companies. "Mortgage companies are taking a lot of sublease space because they can get in quickly," says Ingham. This has helped to offset the growth in sublease supply, which stabilized in the fourth quarter after several months of growth.