The latest Skyline Report for northwest Arkansas shows that vacancy rates remain high in the region's commercial and multifamily sectors, despite the slowest building activity in more than four years.

The Skyline Report is a quarterly economic analysis compiled by the U of A Center for Economic Research and Development on behalf of Arvest Bank.

Kim Souza with our content partner, the Morning News, files this report, which indicated that commercial building permit values fell 79 percent in the second quarter ended June 1, 2008 versus one year ago.  The $13 million recorded was the lowest level reported since 2004.

Other findings:

• A positive absorption of 21,854 sq. ft. during the quarter. On June 1, the region still had 1.7 million square feet of office space available for lease.
• In the quarter, the retail submarket added 15,076 sq. ft. of space and 25,367 sq. ft. became vacant, sending vacancy rates up to 14.3 percent, their highest level in more than a year.
• Warehouse vacancy rates rose to 27.9 percent, compared to 17.7 percent in the previous quarter.
• Multifamily vacancy rates were 12.8 percent in the second quarter, up from 9.9 percent a year earlier.