The Cobb County retail vacancies have been on the rise since the beginning of the century with the only main decrease being between the years of 2012-2017. As with the other counties surrounding Atlanta, it does not appear that the pandemic has had a massive impact on this metric just yet. Vacancies were already starting to increase for many years before the pandemic. It is unlikely that the pandemic would have had a strong impact as of now, but it will be interesting to see what happens to the Cobb County vacancies in the coming months and throughout 2021.

The Cobb County sublet vacancy rate for retail properties has been less consistent than the overall vacancy rate. There are many increases and decreases over the years with no real discernible pattern. The vacancy rate is not at its lowest right now, but it’s not at its highest either. I think we may see a slight increase due to the pandemic because of retail closures and the possibility that some retailers may not be able to survive, but I don’t believe this increase will be drastic or soon. The trends that we are seeing with sublet vacancies are that they have significantly less than the overall vacancies. The sublet vacancy rate for the counties surrounding Atlanta rarely goes over 1% and if it does, it stays below 2%. I think if the pandemic affects sublet rates, it won’t be very drastic and it won’t happen all at once. It is likely that the impact will take a while to show up in this type of data due to the fact that real estate trends usually lag behind other trends. Looking at these numbers through 2021 will give us a better idea of how Coronavirus truly impacts vacancy rates and other similar metrics.

All data from CoStar Group