> "As office building vacancies jeopardize urban fiscal health and downtown vitality, here’s how cities and states are adapting."

The distress over remote work comes not from employers, but from owners of commercial real estate.

Here's a view of that from a lending broker in the commercial real estate sector. [1] The high vacancy rate is all too real, and papering it over with "extend and pretend" lending tricks is mostly over. A lot of loans renew in 2026-2027, and they won't have the near zero interest rates from last time. Vacancy rates are higher than generally reported, because many landlords are making concessions.[2] San Francisco has about a 30% office vacancy rate, by the way. All this means foreclosures, distressed property, markdowns, and bankruptcies. "A January 2026 Morningstar DBRS analysis, reported by The Wall Street Journal and The Real Deal, found that more than half of the roughly $100 billion of securitized commercial mortgages coming due in 2026 are unlikely to pay off at maturity."

The loud "return to office" pronouncements did not result in an increase in office space in use. Despite all the noise, remote work has not really decreased much in recent years. "Less than 1/3 of companies requiring fully in-person work in 2026."[3]

[1] https://fidentcapital.com/the-2026-maturity-wall-what-the-en...

[2] https://www.cbcworldwide.com/blog/buyers-sellers-are-making-...

[3] https://founderreports.com/return-to-office-statistics/

The Remote Work Challenge: Lessons from 5 Cities