The Middle East unrest has a silver lining for Houston according to an article I recently read.  See below:

MIDDLE EAST UNREST BOOSTS HOUSTON OFFICE MARKET

HOUSTON (HoustonRealEstateObserver.com) – The situation in the Middle East has raised safety concerns for energy companies with a presence there, prompting some to move employees back to Houston.

That could mean good news for the Bayou City's office market, one industry insider said on today's HoustonRealEstateObserver.com.

“With the unrest in the Middle East, we’ve had some clients pulling their people out of Oman, Yemen and Libya. It’s just a dangerous world right now,” said Charles Gordon, executive vice president of CB Richard Ellis in Houston.

Gordon said that while employee safety will likely continue to be a factor in deciding whether to relocate, it is too early to determine for how long.

But an increase in Houston leasing activity — spurred not only by events in the Middle East, but by the recent resumption of Gulf drilling — has caused CBRE to rework its office vacancy projections for downtown Houston. Last year, the company projected the vacancy rate could go as high as 16 percent.

“We’re optimistic that things won’t get as bad as we predicted,” Gordon said. “We are revising those numbers based on a lot of deals that are happening right now.”

Citywide, Houston's Class-A office market had a vacancy rate of 16 percent in first quarter 2011, compared with 16.3 percent at the end of 2010, according to CBRE data. Just over 357,900 sf of empty office space was filled in first quarter 2011.