Written By:
Ingo Winzer, President
Local Market Monitor
The
economy in general is doing well. Jobs are being created at the fastest rate in
years, and the total number now exceeds the peak reached before the 2008
recession. Yet, unless you live in Texas, Colorado, North Dakota or one of the
other energy regions, the real estate market has shown little improvement. Part
of the problem is debt-related (too many homeowners still underwater), another
is income-related (not enough well-paying jobs), but the result is that strong
demand for real estate is still not here - an unusual disconnect from the
overall economy.
The
number of jobs in July was up 1.9 percent from last year. This included a 3.6
percent increase in construction jobs - still small but improving. Jobs were up
1.5 percent in manufacturing, 2 percent in retail trade, 3.5 percent in
business services, 1.6 percent in healthcare, and 2.8 percent at restaurants.
Unemployment
in July was 6.2 percent. As expected, the GDP results for the second quarter of
2014 completely reversed the poor showing in the first quarter.
