Austin's office market among 'Top 10 markets to watch'

Austin has landed on the Sperry Van Ness "2007 Top 10 Markets to Watch" report for office properties nationwide.

Austin landed on the list because of its healthy population growth and a projected 7.25 percent rise in office rents in 2008.

Here is the full release:

Sperry Van Ness, one of the nation's largest commercial real estate brokerage firms, has released the office edition of its 2007 Top 10 Markets to Watch Report, examining economic factors that impact future office investment real estate.

The report focuses on future trends and the markets that show the greatest potential for income growth based on these economic movements, rather than current market data.

In its 2007 report, Sperry Van Ness cites the top office investment markets to watch as (listed in alphabetical order) Austin; Central New Jersey; Charlotte; Columbia, S.C.; Greenville, S.C.; Houston; Little Rock; New York City; San Francisco and San Jose.

"It is important to review a matrix of forward-looking economic factors when deciding where to acquire property because they are important forward-looking indicators of a property's financial performance in the future. Cap rate is only one small piece of the performance story," said Jerry Anderson, COO and president, National Advisor Organization of Sperry Van Ness.

Each market that was selected for this report had distinct dynamics that helped it rise into this elite class. Austin's strong position in our rankings is due in large part to its projected rent growth of 7.25 percent in 2008 as well as its tremendous population growth, the largest of all markets evaluated for this report.

In compiling this report, Sperry Van Ness analyzed more than 60 primary, secondary and tertiary markets, examining economic factors that impact future office investment real estate. The market rankings in this report were focused on dynamics including population growth, inventory, vacancy factors and rental trends.