For all the talk of workers fleeing pricey coastal cities such as New York and San Francisco, one of the most troubled spots in the U.S. commercial real estate market is deep in the heart of Texas. Houston ended last year with a 24% office-vacancy rate, the highest of any major U.S. city, according to Jones Lang LaSalle Inc. After years of construction to accommodate an oil boom that’s now gone bust, buildings are sitting empty, values are plunging and mortgage defaults are piling up. The Covid-19 pandemic is only accelerating the real estate distress in America’s energy capital. Office tenants vacated a net 3.2 million square feet (300,000 square meters) last year, and there’s 3.1 million square feet of new top-tier space set to […]