Data Center Vacancy, Absorption and Pricing Trends in North America

Data center market reports borrow office and industrial vocabulary but measure power. Inventory is operating capacity in megawatts of critical IT load. Vacancy is the share of that capacity available for lease; CBRE defines it explicitly as the percentage of power capacity available.¹ Net absorption is capacity newly leased and occupied over a period, net of space given back. Preleasing is the share of capacity under construction that tenants have already committed to before delivery.

Most reports track multi-tenant colocation and wholesale capacity in defined metros, so a hyperscale operator’s self-built campus usually does not show up in vacancy figures at all. That is one reason the three major trackers report different numbers for what looks like the same market.

CBRE’s primary-market vacancy series shows how quickly the market tightened. Vacancy was about 3.3% in the first half of 2023 and 2.8% a year later, then fell to 1.9% at the end of 2024 and 1.6% in mid-2025.⁵ It reached a record low of 1.4% at year-end 2025 even as primary-market supply grew 36% in the year to 9,432 MW.⁴ In the first half of 2026, vacancy held at 1.4% while supply rose 33.7% year over year to a record 10,903 MW.¹³

Market-level vacancy is tighter still in the largest hubs. Northern Virginia, the largest market, had 0.5% vacancy at year-end 2025, the lowest among primary markets, and CBRE’s mid-2026 data put it at about 0.2%.⁴¹ Silicon Valley sat at 4.2% in the first half of 2026.⁷ See the Northern Virginia market guide and the overview of major U.S. markets for market-by-market detail.

Net absorption in CBRE’s primary markets reached a record 2,497.6 MW in 2025, up 38% from 1,809.5 MW in 2024. Northern Virginia led with about 1,102 MW, more than double its 2024 total, and Dallas absorbed about 470.8 MW.⁴ In the first half of 2026, primary-market absorption was 1,456.2 MW, up 11.7% from a year earlier, driven mostly by hyperscale and AI tenants competing for large contiguous power blocks.³

Construction has not been able to close the gap. CBRE reported that capacity under construction in primary markets fell to about 5.9 GW at the end of 2025, the first decline since 2020, with delays attributed to permitting, zoning and power procurement.⁴ By mid-2026 it had rebounded 24.8% to a record 7,481 MW, but with most of it preleased, less than 1,500 MW remained available, roughly six months of demand at the current pace.¹ CBRE has also cited local opposition and zoning delays as a material constraint on North American projects.³

Outside the primary metros, the pipeline is larger and more dispersed. JLL counts about 66 GW under construction in North America and says about 77% of construction is in frontier markets, with Texas at about 26 GW of existing and under-construction capacity against about 13 GW in Virginia.² Our guide to emerging data center markets covers where that growth is going and why.

Preleasing is the clearest sign of scarcity. CBRE found that 80.4% of capacity under construction in its primary markets was preleased in the first half of 2026, up from 74.3% a year earlier.³ Cushman & Wakefield reported U.S. colocation preleasing of 81.5% in its late-2025 update and 91.7% of Americas construction precommitted by mid-2026, though the two editions may define the measure differently.⁸⁶ DatacenterDynamics, summarizing JLL, reported that about 95% of North American capacity under construction was precommitted.⁹

The practical effect is that tenants are buying future deliveries. JLL reports that most tenants securing space today are contracting for 2028 deliveries, and CBRE’s Gordon Dolven has advised users to look at leasing options about three years ahead of schedule and to be flexible on location.²³ For a developer, that means a site’s value depends heavily on whether it can show a credible energization date that a tenant can underwrite. For an occupier deciding whether to build, lease or colocate, it means lead times for leased capacity now resemble lead times for building.

Lease terms are shifting too. A Vinson & Elkins partner quoted by Facilities Dive said AI-focused cloud providers, often called neoclouds, are changing lease structures, and that because their projects need financing, landlords are gaining leverage, including narrower tenant termination rights.³ Our guide to how data center deals are structured explains the main lease and development formats.

Wholesale colocation rents are quoted in dollars per kW of critical capacity per month, and CBRE reports them separately by deployment size, from 250–500 kW requirements up to blocks of 10 MW or more.³ Its long-running benchmark is the 250–500 kW requirement in primary wholesale colocation markets.⁴

That benchmark has climbed sharply. CBRE reported a record average asking rate of $163.44 per kW per month in its primary markets for 2023, up 18.6% in a year.¹⁰ By the end of 2025 it had reached a record $196.25, up 6.6%, with CBRE noting that the pace had slowed after three straight years of double-digit growth.⁴ In the first half of 2026, rents rose in every size category: 4.3% for 250–500 kW, 7.9% for 500 kW–3 MW, 8.3% for 3–10 MW and 6.7% for 10 MW and above.³ JLL estimates rents are up nearly 70% since 2020, averaging about 9% a year, and expects that trend to hold through 2030.²

Rent growth is uneven by market. In CBRE’s first-quarter 2026 data, Chicago rents rose 14.7% year over year and Atlanta’s about 2%, while Dallas–Fort Worth asking rents were unchanged.¹¹ CBRE’s Gordon Dolven has said rental pricing and vacancy rates have been “perfectly inversely correlated” in its reports in recent years.³ CBRE expects slow construction timelines to limit U.S. supply through 2030 and push pricing higher.¹¹

Low vacancy and high preleasing do not mean every parcel near a data center market is valuable. They mean the scarce input is deliverable power, and that the premium accrues to land that can show it. CBRE has described the market as reinforcing a power-first approach that prioritizes sites with the fastest path to power.⁴ Cushman & Wakefield has noted that tertiary markets are drawing more development interest because of more predictable approvals and more developable land.⁸

• Treat market vacancy as context, and the serving utility’s capacity and timeline as the site-specific test. Our electricity demand forecasts guide explains why utility queues overstate real load.
• Look for evidence a tenant can underwrite: a load study, a service agreement path or a powered land arrangement.
• Check local approvals early; zoning and community opposition are now cited alongside power as causes of delay.
• Use one research firm’s series when comparing markets or periods, and note the edition date.

Market reports are updated twice a year, and figures move quickly, so confirm the latest edition before relying on any number. To test a specific parcel against power, zoning and acreage constraints, get a site reviewed or start with our site tools.