Perhaps no part of the economy has a more uncertain future right now than office buildings.

The pace of workers coming back into offices is more of a trickle than a flood. And enough tenants are choosing not to renew as leases come due that vacancy rates are skyrocketing, particularly in expensive cities.

There's no sugarcoating this dynamic for owners of office buildings, but for everyone else it may turn out to be a welcome change. In the long run, as tenants take advantage of lower rents to find new uses for space, this crisis may turn out to be more of an easing of constraints than a collapse in demand.