U.S. retail real estate vacancy rate holds steady in Q3

There’s finally a bit of good news on the retail front: a new report from real estate research firm Reis revealed that the overall retail vacancy rate for the third quarter remained flat at 10 percent, compared to the second quarter, while asking rents went up by 0.4 percent, according to the Wall Street Journal. And while shopping center vacancy rates went up in 34 of 77 metro areas during the third quarter, this was a better showing than the second quarter, when vacancy rates went up in 39 areas. Vacancies did rise slightly in regional malls, going up from 8.1 percent in the second quarter to 8.3 percent in the third quarter, but stayed lower than 2011’s record vacancy rate of 9.4 percent. [WSJ]