Seattle Office Market Report Q1 2026

The Seattle office market in first quarter 2026 experienced significant labor market deterioration, with the regional unemployment rate rising to 5.4% in February 2026 from 4.3% a year prior, driven by 3,420 WARN-noticed layoffs led by Amazon's 2,387 cuts, while office investment activity recovered with $245.6 million in sales across 11 properties at a 7.1% cap rate. For the first time in the recovery cycle, both vacancy and availability declined concurrently by approximately 90 basis points quarter-over-quarter, reaching 23.2% and 26.7% respectively, with the region posting 253,352 square feet of positive net absorption in Q1 2026—the first positive quarter since Q1 2022—though this improvement was tempered by continued tech sector job losses threatening near-term office demand.