The Washington, DC office market currently consists of 807 buildings, over 25,000 square feet, totaling approximately 155.3 million square feet of rentable space. As of August 2021, the unemployment rate for the District of Columbia decreased to 6.5% and the Washington, DC Metropolitan area decreased to 4.9%. The national unemployment rate decreased to 5.2%.
The DC Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) added 101,700 jobs from Aug 2020-Aug 2021, representing 3.3% growth YOY. Sectors adding the most were Leisure & Hospitality with 47,600 and Educational & Health Services with 23,500; while the Government lost 9,300. The largest public sector lease executed this quarter was a 15-year, 1.2 million-square-foot pre-lease by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) at 60 New York Avenue, NE (currently a proposed building in NoMa).The law firm Gibson Dunn executed the largest private sector lease with a 163,750-square-foot pre-lease at 1700 M Street, NW (currently proposed in the CBD).