A commercial real estate services firm is warning that Dayton’s office market is exposed to the automatic government spending cuts that could happen in March.

“The Dayton region is not out of the woods yet when it comes to the financial debate in Washington,” said the report from Cassidy Turley.

Cassidy Turley, in an office market snapshot released this week, said the Dayton office market’s vacancy rate dropped 1.5 percent to 26.3 percent in 2012, which was “quite impressive” given the overall sluggish economy and the fiscal cliff, the firm’s report said.

More office space was moved into than vacated — a change called “positive absorption” — which was an indicator of strength, the report said. The Dayton office market ended 2012 with positive absorption of 248,878 square feet in the year’s second half, well over the 82,834 square feet for the same period in 2011, the report said.

At the same time, however, sequestration looms over the market. The federal fiscal cliff agreement reached earlier this month only delays spending cuts until March, the report observed.

The Dayton office market’s exposure is its reliance on Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, the world’s largest Air Force Base and Ohio’s biggest single-site employer. The base has an annual economic impact on the area of more than $4.5 billion, with more than 29,700 military and civilian employees working there. The base also drives defense contracts with civilian firms with offices in the Dayton area.

“There are some question marks hanging, definitely, ” said James Flick, research director at Cassidy Turley.

The base draws companies like Northrop Grumman, which has a building at 4074 Col. Glenn Highway, and SAIC, located at 3745 Pentagon Blvd.

Downtown Dayton was relatively quiet in the second half of 2012. The 109,398 square feet of positive absorption that downtown saw was almost entirely due to Premier Health Partners moving into the 288,785-square-foot office tower at 110 N. Main St, the report said.

Downtown has a vacancy rate of 36 percent, according to Cassidy Turley.