The latest report on the office market from Moody's Analytics, covering the fourth quarter of 2022, is on the grim side as it sees "further shadows on the future off the office."

Even now, after the early heights of the pandemic, enforced closures, and work-from-home mandates, and after corporations began to reconsider how they would operate, the national vacancy rate reached a new high of 18.7%. The pandemic peak — hit in the second quarter of 2021 and third quarter of 2022 — was 18.5%.

Asking rents overall went up quarter over quarter by 0.3% ($35.05 to $35.14) and effective rates by 0.1% ($28.00 to $28.04). But that is at best a tarnished silver lining when vacancies are climbing at a rate faster than the effective fents. Additionally, those actual rates are barely 80% of what is sought, raising a question of the perception companies have of office space value.