Local Market Watch

According to the Local MLS site’s
Quarterly Economic Market Watch...
As for the local area, the job market has been very positive in recent quarters (2.6% growth in the latest quarter). At the same time, higher mortgage rates have reduced affordability. Home sales, as a result, has being pulling in different directions. Sales were 9% lower in the first quarter compared to the year before. Home prices have continued to increase though because few are forced to sale in a job
creating environment.
Given the strength in the national economy, the
local economy looks to catch part of that upward tide by the year end. Home sales are expected to definitively turn positive once interest rates
stabilized while jobs get added. The forecast is for 8% decline in home sales in 2006 followed by a 2% rise in 2007. Home prices will increase 5% in 2006 and then another 5% in 2007.