The Milwaukee area’s retail real estate market showed some signs of improvement during the first quarter, but is still not performing as well as the rest of the nation.
The region’s retail real estate vacancy rate was 11.1 percent at the end of the first quarter, an improvement from a 11.4 percent vacancy rate at the end of 2008, according to a new report from Boston-based Colliers International.
However, the area’s retail real estate market had negative absorption of 41,000 square feet and the area’s vacancy rate is still higher than the national average of 10.17 percent, according to Colliers International.
The recession has hurt the entire U.S. retail real estate market, the Colliers International report says. The national vacancy rate increased from 9.65 percent at the end of 2008 to 10.17 percent at the end of the first quarter.
