ORANGE COUNTY, CA-The county’s office market remained weak during the third quarter, posting negative net absorption and lower rents, but some signs of stability are emerging, and investment sales activity has increased. These are some of the conclusions in newly released market reports from real estate services firms tracking the county’s more than 100 million square feet of office space.

Although net absorption for the county was negative, leasing activity was on pace with the nine previous quarters at approximately two million square feet per quarter, noted Kurt Strasmann, managing director of Voit Real Estate Services. Voit calculates the negative net absorption at 438,803 square feet for the quarter, compared with a figure of negative 523,771 square feet according to CB Richard Ellis and a negative net of 277,600 square feet according to Colliers International. Voit tracks about 108 million square feet of office space in the county, while CBRE tracks just under 100 million square feet and Colliers lists an inventory of 77 million square feet.

Voit figures the direct vacancy rate at 16.6% and the availability rate at 23.1%, while CBRE lists the direct vacancy at 15.4% and the availability at 23.6%; Colliers lists a direct rate of 19.1% and a total vacancy of 20.6%. All of them show increases from the previous quarter and from the same quarter a year ago as the recession and job losses continue to take their toll on office markets throughout the US.

Lease rates continued to decline in the quarter, with the average asking full service gross rate per month per foot in Orange County slipping to $2.24, according to Voit, which is a 16.73% decrease over last year’s rate of $2.69 and five cents lower than last quarter’s rate. Colliers figures the average asking rate at $2.31 and CBRE lists it at $2.25.

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Oct. 8 (Bloomberg) — The Federal Housing Administration, which insures mortgages with low down payments, may require a U.S. bailout because of $54 billion more in losses than it can withstand, a former Fannie Mae executive said.

“It appears destined for a taxpayer bailout in the next 24 to 36 months,” consultant Edward Pinto said in testimony prepared for a House committee hearing in Washington today. Pinto was the chief credit officer from 1987 to 1989 for Fannie Mae, the mortgage-finance company that is now government-run.

The FHA program’s volumes have quadrupled since 2006 as private lenders and insurers pulled back amid the U.S. housing slump, Pinto said. The jump has left the agency backing risky loans and exposed to fraud in a “market where prices have yet to stabilize,” he said.

Representative Scott Garrett, a New Jersey Republican, introduced legislation this month to boost the FHA’s minimum down payment to 5 percent from 3.5 percent to drugs online help shore up the agency’s insurance fund, a move that could add to the housing market’s burdens as it struggles to recover.

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