It's easy to get enamored with real estate statistics in any market and even easier to make the mistake of planning the year ahead based strictly on projected sale figures. if you look back over the past few years, even NAR's projections of future sales volume has been challenging. Consumers have come to view those projections with a jaundiced eye and so should we; they're tough to get right in the current environment.
Real estate business planning has often ignored one of the most important factors in our business, albeit an indirect one: jobs. In areas where unemployment has reached double digits, real estate markets have taken a real beating. It's an issue that affects everything we do from pricing a listing, to the length of listing agreements, to setting a seller's expectations, to expense management.
Here in Boulder County, CO, we have been blessed with job/real estate markets that are relatively healthy and Boulder has recently been cited as one of the strongest real estate markets in the country. CNN and Money Magazine just released their list of "Top 10 Best Places For Jobs" in the country, and Boulder County was cited as No. 8 for a variety of reasons. The full article is here, but it's a real achievement for our area to be recognized in this category. With a reported unemployment rate of 5.3% in the article, Boulder County offers many things that other markets can't. Since our national and local economic recovery will clearly be driven by jobs, this is a good sign for things to come in 2010.
If you have any questions about Boulder real estate, please feel free to contact us. Have a Happy New Year!
Phil Boren
Your Boulder Home Resource!
(C) Copyright 2010 - Phil Boren. All Rights Reserved.
_________________________________________________________________
Subscribe To My Blog
Office: 303-449-7000 Cell: 720-579-8800
pboren@remax.net
Boulder Real Estate
Thats a good point Phil. If 10+% of the people in your area can't find jobs, it's certainly taking away from your buying pool by quite a bit.
Phil I agree, here in Montrose we are a place where people want to be. Not a lot of jobs other than city/county, school district and hospital. Telluride has really slowed in building so a lot of locals have moved because the building trades have very littl going on.
David: It doesn't take long to get the picture and how important jobs are to any market when you look at the pretty direct correlation between unemployment figures and the local real estate market. Economists tell us that unemployment tends to persist even after a recession is technically over.
Nick: I had a client move to Montrose last year for the fishing. That might be an exception to the "jobs" issue . . .