With the arrival of foreclosure properties in the market, the housing   industry as well as the market of commercial property is facing a   downturn in Washington. However, improvements have been shown by certain   areas of the state. Sales of foreclosed commercial properties have gone   up in those areas and the rates of vacancy have declined.

In Yakima and in other prominent markets in the state, the commercial   as well as the residential markets have been affected by bank   foreclosure properties. For instance, in 2009 when Seattle was   experiencing the greatest effect of foreclosures, many office buildings   were opened in the city.

Though the construction of these commercial   buildings started when real estate condition was at its best, but later   they were affected by the crisis situation in the industrial sector. The   local reports say that the possession of these buildings was with the   owners, but before they could find tenants for the buildings, they broke   down in 2009.

A total of ten buildings of the downtown area constructed in the year   2009 added a great percentage to vacancy rate recorded in Seattle.   This, in turn, aggravated the foreclosure problem already existing in   Washington. However, according to the recent developments, the   structures showed a completely reverse situation. More than 50 percent   of the spaces available in the buildings were either leased out or sold   to tenants, including the big companies like Polyclinic and Isilon   Systems.

The realty market observers are of the opinion that leases and sales   of commercial foreclosure properties were an effective aid to remove the   negative impacts of the foreclosure crisis and recession period.   Maximum spaces were leased out or sold at a rate much lesser than the   original price of these buildings. But still, some landlords were   satisfied with this, as they thought it was far better option than   keeping the spaces empty for a long time.

A few of the landlords even thought that offering the whole building   at a discounted rate was better than keeping it vacant. The real estate   agents say that though this was a favourable situation for some, there   were others who suffered heavy losses. Developers rented their houses at   lower rates and approved low prices for purchase because they wanted to   prevent their residences from being offered as foreclosure dwellings   for sale.

According to real estate observers, the present sales of commercial   foreclosure properties might indicate a sign of improvement and might   signify better things to come in the near future. Since there is not   excess supply, the recovery can be faster.