East Cambridge tenants pay almost double what their West Cambridge counterparts are charged for rent to be close to Kendall Square, the East Coast’s undisputed center for life sciences, according to local real estate experts.

That tidbit was just one of many facts about the local commercial real estate market to come from NAIOP’s mid-year market review this morning.

In East Cambridge, landlords are asking up to nearly $55 per square foot for lab space, while some Alewife tenants pay up to $28 for Class A space, said Curtis Cole, a partner with CB Richard Ellis. He expects the Alewife sub-market to benefit from such disparity.

In Downtown Boston, brokers are concerned with the large amounts of low-rise office tower space that still needs to be absorbed before rents can rise in the low to middle floors, said William Motley, managing director for Jones Lang LaSalle. Right now, high-rise tower space commands $49 per square foot asking prices and is about 13.4 percent available, while low-rise space is about 18.9 percent available and rates are down to $42 per square foot.

However, the fact that there are only four buildings that could accommodate a 100,000-square-foot user in the upper floors this year, compared to six last year, is a positive thing for the Financial District. There are six tenants right now seeking about 100,000 square feet, he added.

"Boston is a volatile market," Motley told the NAIOP crowd. "You see some very broad swings in rental rates."

In the suburbs, Route 128 is the strongest market, with Interstate 495 still lagging, said Jack Kerrigan, executive vice president for Grubb & Ellis. Interestingly, he said that in the very fringe markets, investors can purchase buildings for the same amount that people are paying in rent. Another case study showed Nova Biomedical bought a Billerica building in January for $31 per square foot, while that last time it traded, the property sold for more than $55 per square foot.