Retail Vacancy Rates Hit 10 Year High

New York, NY, April 7, 2010--Vacancy rates and falling rents are hurting U.S. shopping centers and malls, which have seen their highest vacancy rates in a least 10 years, according to research firm Reis.

In the first quarter, the vacancy rate at big U.S. malls hit 8.8 percent, the highest since Reis began tracking the property type in 2000.

Asking-rent fell 0.6 percent, the sixth straight quarter of decline to an average of $38.79 per square foot, the lowest in four years.

At local shopping centers, including strip malls,  the picture was just as bad.

The decline in occupied space at local shopping centers pushed the first-quarter vacancy to 10.8 percent, the highest since 1991.