I have a few minutes to reflect upon commercial real estate activity in the Boise Valley over this last month & about all I can say is "wow."

In September as I attended a monthly commercial real estate round table one of the agents asked if there was a slow down in the market.  I think about half the room almost fell out of their chairs at that time, but if someone were to ask that question today, I think they would all fall out of their charis.

Now, to be fair, individually, we all experience different rates of transactions as our individual clients either slow down or speed up their searches.

To say the market has been active over the summer and fall would be an understatement.  During this past month, for instance, at one office building alone, we have placed 5 tenants and activity throughout the market segments has been strong.  I will admit that buyers seem to have been cautious in the late summer and early fall, but it looks like they are coming out of a little hibenation as well.

I have checked with some of the agents I work with frequently and they are all busy as well.   However, one of the  more humerous comments I overheard this past month had to do with some anticipated over supply of office space.  As one agent announced the construction of a new office building, I think the very senior & well respected office leasing agent said something like "that's all we need."  There was a vacancy report that came out in the past month somewhat verifying an upswing in the office segment as well.

I will mention one humerous interchange I experienced with a client of mine.  They wanted to expand and used the recent news article as a reason to seek leasing incentives from the owner / landlord.  I had to tell them that the article mentioned that industrial vacancies had gone from 5.7% to 5.9%.  In my opinion, that's like saying the unemployment rate underwent a similar change - because you wouldn't even notice that type of change & it certainly doesn't shift the market dynamics.  A vacancy rate in that range is still pretty low.

The Boise Valley commercail real estate market is alive and well reflecting well on all Boise Valley cities including Boise, Meridian, Nampa, and Caldwell.

I will note, however, that tenants do appear to be holding to more classical locations and not wanting to experiment in areas outside the "core" market areas.