Omaha Health of Office Market

[ita]

Omaha office market keeps bucking the trends

Dan Rafter
Here’s the key stat for the Omaha office market in 2022: It ended the year with positive net absorption.

That is a rarity in office markets across the country, as companies continue to struggle with the work-from-home movement and determining how much office space they need.

But as Colliers’ 2022 fourth-quarter Omaha office market report shows, the Omaha office market bucked this trend. The local market saw enough positive net absorption in the first and third quarters of the year to outweigh the negative absorption it saw in the second and fourth quarters.

As Colliers says, Omaha’s office market is less volatile than the national office market.

[ricko]

I’m wondering if the main drivers of the work-from-home movement in large cities have more to do with commute times (and to a lesser extent work-life issues). I live in a metro area of over 6 million, and commuting for most is a major stressor/expense, not to mention the ridiculous amounts of $ young families pay for child care here. Working from home was a thing here long before Covid, and it works for many I know. Omaha doesn’t have hellish commutes, relative to every other metro I’ve lived in (and I really like that about Omaha—-getting around the city is relatively easy). Working from home makes so much sense on so many levels.

[Cermak]

I’m wondering if the main drivers of the work-from-home movement in large cities have more to do with commute times (and to a lesser extent work-life issues). I live in a metro area of over 6 million, and commuting for most is a major stressor/expense, not to mention the ridiculous amounts of $ young families pay for child care here. Working from home was a thing here long before Covid, and it works for many I know. Omaha doesn’t have hellish commutes, relative to every other metro I’ve lived in (and I really like that about Omaha—-getting around the city is relatively easy). Working from home makes so much sense on so many levels.

Agree, in many of these large cities with long commute times it's going to be difficult to get people back into the office. I know companies would much rather have people in the office than working from home.

[ricko]

I’m wondering if the main drivers of the work-from-home movement in large cities have more to do with commute times (and to a lesser extent work-life issues). I live in a metro area of over 6 million, and commuting for most is a major stressor/expense, not to mention the ridiculous amounts of $ young families pay for child care here. Working from home was a thing here long before Covid, and it works for many I know. Omaha doesn’t have hellish commutes, relative to every other metro I’ve lived in (and I really like that about Omaha—-getting around the city is relatively easy). Working from home makes so much sense on so many levels.

Agree, in many of these large cities with long commute times it's going to be difficult to get people back into the office. I know companies would much rather have people in the office than working from home.

Sometimes I wonder if the back-to-the-office push is driven by middle management. In some companies, they wouldn’t have much to do in an empty office (no endless/pointless meetings that help to justify their positions, no office politicking, no drama).