Posted: May 5th, 2008 | Author: Nathan Blair | Filed under: Forbes magazine, economy | Tags: Forbes 10 recession proof cities, salt lake city economy, salt lake city real estate, Utah real estate market | 5 Comments »
A word to Salt Lake City residents – our city is not doing as bad as the media would like you to believe. We have recently been named one of the country’s top 10 recession proof cities, according to a study done by Forbes.
It is true that our unemployment rates have gone up to 3.1%, but we are still below the national average of 5.1%. And our housing prices rose 2.5% while most of the nation was dropping. The other promising number, according to Forbes, is a 5.5% expected growth percentage in education and health services.
I’ve always thought that it is important to publicize this kind of news in addition to all the bad news swimming around out there. It’s too easy to get caught up in the gloom of the national media, so I make sure to point out good news when I see it.
Salt Lake City residents are in a relatively good position right now. Jobs are still being created, people are buying homes (although there needs to be more of that happening), and health services and education is growing. I know people here are feeling the rise in prices, but it could be a lot worse for our city. I don’t think it will be too many months before we start to come out of this, especially in the Salt Lake housing market.
Tags: Salt Lake City economy, Salt Lake City real estate, Forbes, business, real estate
Posted: April 29th, 2008 | Author: Nathan Blair | Filed under: ducks, economy | Tags: duck crossing, rising prices, U.S. economy | No Comments »
Food prices are up!
Gas prices are up!!
Coal prices are up which will drive electricity prices up!!!
Stamps go up in two weeks!!!!
Utah foreclosures are way up!!!!!
Is there anything down (besides consumer confidence)?? Ummm…frugality?
No really, despite what they would have you believe, the world is not coming to an end. As long as there is human decency, there’s still hope for us all. Like this police officer who stopped traffic on the freeway to allow a duck and her ducklings to cross.
Now that’s some human decency. Good for you, Officer Carrell.
Tags: ducks, U.S. economy, gas prices, food prices
Posted: March 19th, 2008 | Author: Nathan Blair | Filed under: NAR, economy | Tags: economic projections, housing projections, National Association of Realtors | No Comments »
The National Association of REALTORS issued a press release yesterday, and according to them, things don’t look so bad.Most people associated with the real estate industry know that the NAR is usually more optimistic than the media, which rarely has anything positive to say about anything, so you should take that into consideration before reading the release. Any association made up of REALTORS will obviously have an interest in talking up the business of its members. You can’t blame them, but it does shed a different light on why they say what they do. Also keep in mind that these are projections, not guarantees.
That said, the NAR says that existing home sales will actually trend upward in 2008. They admit that the Pending Home Sales Index still shows lower numbers than last year at this time, but that it’s inching upward. New home sales don’t look as promising, and the NAR projects that recovery won’t start until 2009. Even so, that’s sooner than some people are projecting.
I’m not much into rehashing number number after number, so you can follow the link on your own and read it for yourself. And it’s perfectly ok if your mind starts wandering after a few paragraphs – it’s pretty boring stuff.
