Seattle's office vacancy is at a record high and among the worst in the U.S., topping Cushman & Wakefield's 92-market survey

Five-second answer

Claim we investigated

Seattle has the worst office vacancy rate in the country.

Mostly true. Cushman & Wakefield ranks Seattle highest of 92 U.S. markets; two other trackers rank it second. Cushman & Wakefield's Q2 2026 national survey puts Seattle at 32.7%, the highest of 92 markets. Yardi Matrix and CommercialCafe put Seattle second behind San Francisco, and local broker data put downtown Seattle near 36%, far above its 2009 record.

Quote or cite this fact-check

FactHub rates the claim “Seattle has the worst office vacancy rate in the country” Mostly true (high confidence): Cushman & Wakefield ranks Seattle highest of 92 U.S. markets; two other trackers rank it second. Reviewed October 14, 2026. https://facthub.org/n/article/seattle-office-vacancy-highest/2

One-minute summary

What the evidence establishes

In Cushman & Wakefield's Q2 2026 national survey, Seattle's 32.7% office vacancy was the highest of 92 U.S. markets, ahead of downtown Los Angeles (32.3%) and San Francisco (30.1%). The national rate was 20.1%.
Two other national trackers rank Seattle second: Yardi Matrix (24.7% vs. San Francisco's 25.8%, June 2026) and CommercialCafe (24.9% vs. 26%, July 2026).
Downtown Seattle alone is about 36% vacant: 35.8% in Cushman & Wakefield's Q3 2026 report, up from 35.1% a year earlier.
That is more than five times the 6.7% downtown vacancy Kidder Mathews reported at the end of 2019, and about 15 points above the previous record of about 21% after the 2008 financial crisis.
Seattle is moving the wrong way: its rate in Cushman's survey rose from 27.7% to 32.7% in two years while San Francisco's fell from 34.5% to 30.1%.
Next door, Bellevue and the Eastside are far lower, at about 22% to 25%.

Important context: Office vacancy is the share of rentable office space with no tenant. There is no official government measure, so every figure here comes from commercial real estate firms, which define markets differently: some report a whole metro area, some a city, and some only a downtown core. Rankings therefore depend on which firm and which geography are compared. This fact check rates how Seattle's vacancy compares and how high it is, not what caused it.

The evidence

The conclusion rests on the combined record. Expand each item to see its role and limitations.

Independence note: This check uses 4 methods across 7 institutions and 1 country or international grouping.

Evidence map
Method	Institution / country	Year(s)	What it shows	Key limitation	Primary links
Broker survey of competitive office inventory, published quarterly for 92 U.S. markets using one methodology	Cushman & Wakefield United States	2024, 2025, 2026	Cushman & Wakefield's U.S. Office MarketBeat for Q2 2026 lists overall vacancy for 92 markets. Seattle's 32.7% is the highest in the table, followed by Los Angeles CBD (32.3%), San Francisco (30.1%), Oklahoma City (28.8%), Minneapolis/St. Paul (27.0%) and Austin (26.9%). The U.S. rate is 20.1%. The same table shows Seattle rising from 30.9% in Q2 2025 to 32.7% in Q1 2026 and holding there in Q2, while San Francisco fell from 33.8% to 30.1% over the same year. The firm's Q3 2025 report shows Seattle at 27.7% in Q3 2024, so Seattle's rate rose about five points in two years while the national rate stayed near 20%.	This is one firm's survey, and it is a commercial firm with an interest in the leasing market. The report does not define the boundaries of its Seattle market (68.6 million square feet), which reports a lower rate than the same firm's downtown-only figure, and it mixes whole-city markets with downtown-only ones such as Los Angeles CBD, so it is not a strict like-for-like ranking. Recent quarters are preliminary and earlier quarters are revised between reports: the Q3 2025 report, for example, had Seattle third that quarter, behind San Francisco and Los Angeles CBD. The Q3 2026 market table had not been published when this was reviewed; the firm's Q3 2026 release gives only the national rate, 19.8%.	Cushman & Wakefield Cushman & Wakefield Cushman & Wakefield (via Business Wire)
Metro-wide vacancy compiled from office listings for the 25 largest U.S. office markets	Yardi Matrix, CommercialCafe (Yardi Systems) United States	2026	Yardi Matrix's July 2026 office outlook, covering data through June, reports San Francisco highest at 25.8%, followed by Seattle (24.7%) and Austin (24.5%), against a national rate of 17.7%. CommercialCafe's July 2026 report, as covered by Scotsman Guide, gives the same order: San Francisco 26%, Seattle 24.9%, Austin 24.5%.	CommercialCafe is published by Yardi Systems, the same company behind Yardi Matrix, so these two are not fully independent. Both cover metro areas, not downtowns, and use a different method and market list from Cushman & Wakefield, so their percentages are lower and not directly comparable with Cushman's. The CommercialCafe figures here come from a news summary rather than the original report.	Yardi Matrix Scotsman Guide
Local broker market reports for downtown Seattle, the Eastside and the Puget Sound region	Cushman & Wakefield, CBRE, The Seattle Times United States	2025, 2026	Cushman & Wakefield's Q3 2026 Downtown Seattle report puts overall vacancy at 35.8%, up from 35.1% a year earlier. The Seattle Times, citing the same firm, reported in July 2026 that nearly 37% of downtown office space was vacant, the most of any major U.S. downtown, compared with 25% in downtown Bellevue and a 23% average for large U.S. downtowns. Cushman reports Eastside vacancy at 22.4% in Q3 2026. CBRE, a separate brokerage, reports 27.9% vacancy for the wider Puget Sound market in Q3 2026, down 40 basis points.	The Seattle Times does not list which downtowns were compared or how they were defined, so the 'most of any major U.S. downtown' ranking cannot be checked independently from that article. Cushman supplies both the downtown figure and the national ranking, so this item and the first are not independent on the ranking question. CBRE's figure covers a different, larger area and cannot be compared directly with downtown-only numbers.	Cushman & Wakefield Cushman & Wakefield CBRE The Seattle Times (via The Spokesman-Review)
Historical broker reports and contemporaneous news coverage	Kidder Mathews, Cushman & Wakefield, Daily Journal of Commerce, The Seattle Times United States	2009, 2019, 2026	Kidder Mathews reported downtown Seattle (CBD) vacancy of 6.7% and Bellevue CBD vacancy of 3.8% at the end of 2019. In December 2009, Cushman & Wakefield told the Daily Journal of Commerce that downtown vacancy was about 18.5%, an all-time high, and projected about 21.2% by the end of that year. The Seattle Times reports that vacancy peaked at 21% after the 2008 to 2010 recession and the market recovered within five years. Today's roughly 36% is about 15 points above that record and more than five times the 2019 level. The Seattle Times also reports downtown rents down about 25% after inflation since late 2019 (Cushman & Wakefield) and downtown office values down about $15 billion, or 46%, since 2020 (King County Assessor).	Kidder Mathews, Cushman & Wakefield and the 2009 projection define downtown somewhat differently, so the historical comparison is approximate. The 21% peak is reported by the Seattle Times without a specific primary table, and the 2009 article gives a projection rather than a final figure.	Kidder Mathews Daily Journal of Commerce The Seattle Times (via The Spokesman-Review)

1. Cushman & Wakefield's 92-market survey ranks Seattle highest

Cushman & Wakefield's U.S. Office MarketBeat for Q2 2026 lists overall vacancy for 92 markets. Seattle's 32.7% is the highest in the table, followed by Los Angeles CBD (32.3%), San Francisco (30.1%), Oklahoma City (28.8%), Minneapolis/St. Paul (27.0%) and Austin (26.9%). The U.S. rate is 20.1%. The same table shows Seattle rising from 30.9% in Q2 2025 to 32.7% in Q1 2026 and holding there in Q2, while San Francisco fell from 33.8% to 30.1% over the same year. The firm's Q3 2025 report shows Seattle at 27.7% in Q3 2024, so Seattle's rate rose about five points in two years while the national rate stayed near 20%.

Limit: This is one firm's survey, and it is a commercial firm with an interest in the leasing market. The report does not define the boundaries of its Seattle market (68.6 million square feet), which reports a lower rate than the same firm's downtown-only figure, and it mixes whole-city markets with downtown-only ones such as Los Angeles CBD, so it is not a strict like-for-like ranking. Recent quarters are preliminary and earlier quarters are revised between reports: the Q3 2025 report, for example, had Seattle third that quarter, behind San Francisco and Los Angeles CBD. The Q3 2026 market table had not been published when this was reviewed; the firm's Q3 2026 release gives only the national rate, 19.8%.

Verify: United States Office MarketBeat, Q2 2026 United States Office MarketBeat, Q3 2025 Cushman & Wakefield: U.S. Office Recovery Takes Hold as Sublease Space Shrinks and New Construction Hits Multi-Decade Low

2. Two listing-based trackers rank Seattle second, behind San Francisco

Yardi Matrix's July 2026 office outlook, covering data through June, reports San Francisco highest at 25.8%, followed by Seattle (24.7%) and Austin (24.5%), against a national rate of 17.7%. CommercialCafe's July 2026 report, as covered by Scotsman Guide, gives the same order: San Francisco 26%, Seattle 24.9%, Austin 24.5%.

Limit: CommercialCafe is published by Yardi Systems, the same company behind Yardi Matrix, so these two are not fully independent. Both cover metro areas, not downtowns, and use a different method and market list from Cushman & Wakefield, so their percentages are lower and not directly comparable with Cushman's. The CommercialCafe figures here come from a news summary rather than the original report.

Verify: Office Market Outlook – July 2026 Office sector continues to heal as vacancy rates fall and listing prices rise

3. Downtown Seattle is about 36% vacant, far above its neighbors

Cushman & Wakefield's Q3 2026 Downtown Seattle report puts overall vacancy at 35.8%, up from 35.1% a year earlier. The Seattle Times, citing the same firm, reported in July 2026 that nearly 37% of downtown office space was vacant, the most of any major U.S. downtown, compared with 25% in downtown Bellevue and a 23% average for large U.S. downtowns. Cushman reports Eastside vacancy at 22.4% in Q3 2026. CBRE, a separate brokerage, reports 27.9% vacancy for the wider Puget Sound market in Q3 2026, down 40 basis points.

Limit: The Seattle Times does not list which downtowns were compared or how they were defined, so the 'most of any major U.S. downtown' ranking cannot be checked independently from that article. Cushman supplies both the downtown figure and the national ranking, so this item and the first are not independent on the ranking question. CBRE's figure covers a different, larger area and cannot be compared directly with downtown-only numbers.

Verify: Seattle Downtown Office MarketBeat, Q3 2026 Puget Sound Eastside Office MarketBeat, Q3 2026 Puget Sound Office Figures Q3 2026 As downtown Seattle offices empty, city facing years of 'zombie' towers

4. Today's vacancy is far above Seattle's pre-pandemic level and its 2009 record

Kidder Mathews reported downtown Seattle (CBD) vacancy of 6.7% and Bellevue CBD vacancy of 3.8% at the end of 2019. In December 2009, Cushman & Wakefield told the Daily Journal of Commerce that downtown vacancy was about 18.5%, an all-time high, and projected about 21.2% by the end of that year. The Seattle Times reports that vacancy peaked at 21% after the 2008 to 2010 recession and the market recovered within five years. Today's roughly 36% is about 15 points above that record and more than five times the 2019 level. The Seattle Times also reports downtown rents down about 25% after inflation since late 2019 (Cushman & Wakefield) and downtown office values down about $15 billion, or 46%, since 2020 (King County Assessor).

Limit: Kidder Mathews, Cushman & Wakefield and the 2009 projection define downtown somewhat differently, so the historical comparison is approximate. The 21% peak is reported by the Seattle Times without a specific primary table, and the 2009 article gives a projection rather than a final figure.

Verify: Seattle Office Market Research, Q4 2019 Downtown Seattle office vacancy coverage, December 2009 As downtown Seattle offices empty, city facing years of 'zombie' towers

Common questions

“San Francisco is the worst office market, not Seattle.”

That was true until recently, and it is still true in some data. In Cushman & Wakefield's survey, San Francisco led until late 2025, at 32.6% in Q4 2025 against Seattle's 32.3%; by Q2 2026, San Francisco had fallen to 30.1% and Seattle had risen to 32.7%. Yardi Matrix and CommercialCafe still had San Francisco about one point ahead in mid-2026. That disagreement is why the rating is Mostly true rather than True. The trend is clear in every source: San Francisco is improving faster than Seattle.

“The 36% figure is cherry-picked because it covers only downtown.”

It is a downtown-only figure, and comparing it with other cities' metro-wide rates would overstate Seattle's position. This check does not rely on that comparison. The ranking evidence uses each tracker's own consistent market definitions: Seattle is first in Cushman & Wakefield's survey at 32.7% and second in Yardi Matrix's metro data at 24.7%. The downtown figure is used only to show how severe conditions are in the core and how they compare with Seattle's own history.

“Seattle's office market is already recovering, so the problem is overstated.”

There are early signs of stabilization. CBRE reported 300,000 square feet of positive net absorption downtown in Q3 2026, the first positive quarter since 2021, and Puget Sound vacancy fell to 27.9%. Cushman & Wakefield reports downtown leasing up about 30% year over year. But downtown vacancy was still 35.8% in Q3 2026, higher than a year earlier, and remains far above any level recorded before 2020. One positive quarter does not change the ranking or the severity.

“Real estate brokers have reasons to exaggerate or downplay vacancy.”

No public agency publishes office vacancy, so broker data are the only systematic source. This check reduces dependence on any one firm by comparing Cushman & Wakefield, CBRE, Kidder Mathews and Yardi, which use different methods and market definitions. They disagree on exact percentages but agree that Seattle is at a record level and among the top two or three U.S. markets.

“Seattle's business taxes are why its offices are empty.”

This check does not rate causes. Two facts are relevant. First, Bellevue, which has no comparable payroll tax, also has elevated vacancy, about 22% to 25%, though it is lower than Seattle's. Second, Amazon's Seattle headcount fell from about 60,000 in 2020 to about 49,000 in early 2026 while its Bellevue workforce grew to about 15,000, which accounts for much of the jobs shift between the two cities. Puget Sound Regional Council employment data show Seattle had about as many jobs in 2025 as in 2019, which suggests that lost jobs alone do not explain the empty space. A full test of the tax claim needs separate evidence.

Conclusion

The claim's core is accurate: by any of the major national trackers, Seattle is among the two or three emptiest office markets in the United States, and by the largest broker survey with a published market-by-market table it is now the emptiest. In Cushman & Wakefield's Q2 2026 national report, Seattle's 32.7% overall vacancy was the highest of the 92 markets listed, ahead of downtown Los Angeles (32.3%) and San Francisco (30.1%), against a national rate of 20.1%. The rating is Mostly true rather than True because the ranking depends on the source. Yardi Matrix (June 2026) and CommercialCafe (July 2026), both metro-wide, still show San Francisco slightly higher, at 25.8% and 26% against Seattle's 24.7% and 24.9%. The claim also blurs geography: the highest Seattle figure in circulation, about 36% for downtown alone, is not directly comparable with metro-wide numbers for other cities. What is not in dispute is the severity and the direction. Downtown Seattle vacancy is about 36% (35.8% in Cushman & Wakefield's Q3 2026 local report), against 6.7% at the end of 2019 (Kidder Mathews) and a previous record of about 21% after the 2008 financial crisis. Seattle's overall rate in Cushman's survey rose five points in two years, from 27.7% in Q3 2024, while the national rate stayed near 20% and San Francisco's fell more than four points. There are early signs of stabilization: CBRE reported positive downtown absorption in Q3 2026 for the first time since 2021, and new leasing is up. Confidence is High because several firms using different methods agree Seattle is in the top three and at a record level; the remaining uncertainty is only about whether it is first or second, which turns on the tracker and on how each defines the Seattle market. Cushman & Wakefield's Q3 2026 market-by-market table had not been posted when this was reviewed, and its national report does not define the boundaries of its 68.6-million-square-foot Seattle market, which reports a lower rate than the same firm's downtown figure. This check does not assess causes. Reporting and brokers cite a large pre-2020 construction boom, hybrid work, tech-industry layoffs and some large employers, chiefly Amazon, shifting jobs to Bellevue; weighing those is outside its scope.

How we checked

Defined the claim as whether Seattle's office vacancy rate is the highest in the United States, and separately how high it is compared with Seattle's own history. Causes were excluded from the rating.
Located the most recent national broker survey with a market-by-market table (Cushman & Wakefield, Q2 2026) and read every market's vacancy rate to confirm Seattle's rank, rather than relying on news summaries.
Cross-checked the ranking against trackers that use different methods (Yardi Matrix and CommercialCafe, which are listing-based and metro-wide), and noted that those two share an owner.
Compared local downtown, Eastside and regional figures from two brokerages (Cushman & Wakefield and CBRE).
Established historical baselines from a Kidder Mathews Q4 2019 report and Cushman & Wakefield's 2009 comments to the Daily Journal of Commerce.
Recorded the limits of each source, including differing geographic definitions, revisions between reports, the missing Q3 2026 national table, and the absence of any government vacancy series.
Archived each source with the Wayback Machine where captures succeeded, and recorded a content digest of what FactHub fetched.

Editorial note: Scope: this fact check rates whether Seattle's office vacancy rate is the highest in the United States and how high it is. It does not rate claims about what caused the vacancy, including claims about Seattle's business taxes, which need separate evidence. Material caveat: all vacancy data come from private commercial real estate firms; there is no government series to cross-check against. The draft was researched and written with AI assistance and has not yet had human editorial review. No external specialist review has been recorded.

Expert-review status

No external specialist review has been recorded.

Funding and conflicts

Funding: No external funding for this piece.

Ownership: FactHub is an independent fact-checking site; it has no ownership ties to any real estate firm, landlord, employer or government cited here.

Conflicts: No known conflicts of interest.

Sources

Sources are labeled by their role so readers can evaluate the evidence independently.

Primary broker data (national) Cushman & Wakefield. United States Office MarketBeat, Q2 2026
Vacancy rates table (p. 5) listing overall vacancy for 92 U.S. markets, Q2 2025 to Q2 2026. Chosen as the largest national survey with a published market-by-market table.
Archived copy captured October 14, 2026
Primary broker data (national, earlier quarters) Cushman & Wakefield. United States Office MarketBeat, Q3 2025
Vacancy rates from Q3 2024 to Q3 2025 for the same markets, used for the two-year trend.
Archived copy captured October 14, 2026
Primary broker release (national) Cushman & Wakefield (via Business Wire). Cushman & Wakefield: U.S. Office Recovery Takes Hold as Sublease Space Shrinks and New Construction Hits Multi-Decade Low
Q3 2026 national release giving U.S. vacancy of 19.8%. It has no market table; cited to show the most recent national rate.
Primary broker data (local) Cushman & Wakefield. Seattle Downtown Office MarketBeat, Q3 2026
Downtown Seattle overall vacancy of 35.8% in Q3 2026, up from 35.1% a year earlier, plus asking rent and leasing figures.
Archived copy captured October 14, 2026
Primary broker data (local comparison) Cushman & Wakefield. Puget Sound Eastside Office MarketBeat, Q3 2026
Eastside (Bellevue area) vacancy of 22.4% in Q3 2026, used as a regional comparison.
Archived copy captured October 14, 2026
Independent broker data (local) CBRE. Puget Sound Office Figures Q3 2026
A second brokerage's figures: Puget Sound vacancy of 27.9% and downtown Seattle's first quarter of positive net absorption since Q3 2021.
Independent tracker (national, listing-based) Yardi Matrix. Office Market Outlook – July 2026
Metro-wide vacancy as of June 2026: San Francisco 25.8%, Seattle 24.7%, Austin 24.5%, national 17.7%. Chosen because it uses a different method from Cushman & Wakefield.
Archived copy captured October 14, 2026
News report of tracker data Scotsman Guide. Office sector continues to heal as vacancy rates fall and listing prices rise
Summarizes CommercialCafe's July report: San Francisco 26%, Seattle 24.9%, Austin 24.5% among the 25 largest markets.
Archived copy captured October 14, 2026
News report The Seattle Times (via The Spokesman-Review). As downtown Seattle offices empty, city facing years of 'zombie' towers
July 2026 report citing Cushman & Wakefield (nearly 37% downtown vacancy; Bellevue 25%; 23% large-downtown average; rents down 25% after inflation), the 2008 to 2010 peak of 21%, and King County Assessor value losses. Syndicated copy of the Seattle Times story.
Contemporaneous news report Daily Journal of Commerce. Downtown Seattle office vacancy coverage, December 2009
Cushman & Wakefield's December 2009 estimate of about 18.5% downtown vacancy, then an all-time high, with a projection of about 21.2% by year end.
Archived copy captured October 14, 2026
Independent broker data (historical baseline) Kidder Mathews. Seattle Office Market Research, Q4 2019
Pre-pandemic baseline: Seattle CBD vacancy 6.7% and Bellevue CBD 3.8% at the end of 2019. Chosen as a third brokerage independent of Cushman & Wakefield and CBRE.
Archived copy captured October 14, 2026
News report (context for objection) KUOW. Amazon is no longer Seattle's top employer, but its Bellevue headcount continues to climb
Amazon-confirmed Seattle headcount of about 49,000 in early 2026, down from about 60,000 in 2020, and its Bellevue growth.
Government data (context for objection) Puget Sound Regional Council. Covered Employment Estimates
Jobs by city from state unemployment-insurance records. Seattle had 619,916 covered jobs in March 2019 and 614,208 in March 2025.
dataset PSRC Covered Employment by City – Major Sector (data portal)
Downloadable jobs-by-city tables, 2000 to 2025.
report Cushman & Wakefield U.S. Office MarketBeat reports
Archive of quarterly national office reports, where the Q3 2026 market table will appear.

Update history

October 14, 2026 First draft. Wayback captures failed for the Business Wire release (which also blocked FactHub's fetch), CBRE, KUOW, PSRC and the Spokesman-Review copy of the Seattle Times story; content digests are recorded where FactHub could fetch the page, and archiving should be retried before publication.
October 14, 2026 Revised the title to lead with the finding that holds across every source: a record high and among the worst in the country.

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Technical details: node handle article:seattle-office-vacancy-highest:2

Seattle's office vacancy is at a record high and among America's worst.