Open office space is as plentiful as beach chairs and boogie boards in Savannah these days, and all can be claimed for about the same price.

A national office market report Tuesday revealed a continuing decline in the sector, and the local market mirrors what's happening nationally, area commercial real estate specialists said.

"We continue to trend that way," said Anthony Wagner of MelaverMouchet, a local commercial real estate brokerage. "We're not quite as bad as what you see in other places nationally, but we're seeing those trends."

Nationally, the office-space market hit a four-year high in vacancies and a seven-year high in falling rent prices in the second quarter, according to a report from real estate research firm Reis Inc.

The national vacancy rate hit 15.9 percent in the quarter that ended June 30, and rent fell to an average of $23.42 per square foot.

The national market is "decaying and getting worse," said Victor Calanog, Reis director of research.

"Given the depth and magnitude of the recession, you can argue that we are facing a storm of epic proportions," he said, "and we're only at the beginning."

Updated local numbers were not immediately available because Savannah is not among the 79 cities studied. But the local market was already below the national averages in vacancy and rent rates.

In 2008, the local vacancy rate stood at 17.7 percent, and the average lease rate per square foot was $19.92, according to a year-end market analysis by Colliers Neely Dales, another local commercial real estate firm. A mid-year report put out by MelaverMouchet in April estimated local vacancies at closer to 24 percent and lease rates around $19.81 per square foot.

However, high activity is tempering pessimism locally.

Collier Neely Dales' Ashley Smith credits "tenant shuffling" for making the office market currently the most active commercial real estate segment.

Smith's company pre-leased 50 percent of the space in the recently opened Stephenson Avenue Executive Center, which he classified as a "real good sign" in a downward-trending market.

"There are deals out there in newer and better locations," Smith said. "What remains to be seen is how many tenant shufflers are downsizing in square footage and creating more vacant space."

Consolidations and buyouts in the financial sector are having an impact, Smith said. As banks and brokerages merge operations, for example, they often lease new or additional space and vacate other offices.

The west Chatham area, particularly Pooler, is likely to experience the greatest flight by tenant shufflers, Smith and Wagner agreed. Many companies leased space in Pooler in recent years because of projected growth, but the recession has slowed westside development.

"Pooler is starting to fall off people's radar a little more," Wagner said. "Companies that were willing to go out there and wait for everybody else to come are coming back into town instead."