Fat Wallets Feed Retail Growth
If you're looking for more places to buy your EVOO and sockeye salmon filets, you're in luck. Dallas-Fort Worth's retail vacancy hit a new low of 8.1% in Q1, thanks to a growing economy spurring store expansion.
CBRE research guru Sara Rutledge tells us vacancy is almost a percentage point lower than the same time last year, steadily declining each quarter over the past year. (So if you want retail space, you better get it now, or you'll be on the sidewalk competing with the Girl Scouts... and that's a battle you'll lose.) Sara credits the growth to the 2.2% DFW employment jump in 2013, compared to 1.7% nationally. To boot, local unemployment was 5.4% at year's end, compared to 6.7% nationally.
Job growth is also driving income gains, net migration, and tight conditions in the housing market, Sara tells us. (Thus more crowded housewares aisles at Target.) Despite limited development, retailers have continued to expand here over the past few years, including new stores for Winco, Walmart, and Aldi. In fact, Q1 absorption (1.2M SF) outpaced the entire first six months of ’13, she says.
