Boston’s commercial real estate market

Boston real estate - Rents for the Boston area’s most exclusive towers and buildings are cooling in a sign the red-hot office leasing market may have peaked.

After several quarters of rising rates, the average asking rent for Class A towers and buildings in Greater Boston fell 45 cents to just over $40 per square foot, commercial real estate firm Richards Barry Joyce & Partners reports.

That comes after 18 months in which rents for top towers and buildings spiked, jumping nearly 30 percent since the end of 2005, the firm finds in its first quarter market report.