The aftershock of the financial earthquake that hit Wall Street late in the summer is rattling two major suburban markets north of Manhattan. As elsewhere, office vacancy rates have been climbing in Westchester County, N.Y., and Fairfield County, Conn., which sit side by side.

Robert Weisz of the RPW Group in the atrium of 800 Westchester Avenue in Rye Brook, N.Y. He says the rise in vacancies in Westchester will be tempered because there has been little new supply.

At last count, as of Sept. 30, the vacancy rate in Fairfield was 14%, a full percentage point higher than a year earlier, and in Westchester it was 15.7%, also up a full point. The rates are almost certainly going higher, brokers say, as leasing deals have been falling through and sublease space has been coming on the market.

New York Times