Economic Outlook

I recently attended an Economic Summit at our local Realtor association. It was an informative session where we heard about the National economy and how it compares with our local economy. Dr. Fuller with George Mason University informed us that we would need to have nationally 100,000 new jobs per month for one year for the level of unemployment to stay where it is now. If not, the level is going to continue to rise until 2011 when job loss should stabilize because by then our economy will have been able to absorb all of its losses.

One point I found interesting is that in the end, once the economy has stabilized, it will be more streamlined. When there is a downturn, it makes us change our ways to find better, more economical ways to do things, thus legislation is formed that in the long run, helps our economy.

The Washington DC Metro Area is quite unique. The national outlook seems pretty bleak, but in our area, the GDP (Washington GDP) is higher than the National GDP, our unemployment level is substantially lower at 5.6 than the National unemployment rate which is 8.6. This is due in large part by the opportunities within the Federal Government and contractors/consults that move to the area and/or move their businesses to the area. We are very fortunate to live in the DC Metro area as opposed to other parts of the country that are suffering devastating blows to their local economies, high levels of unemployment which in turn produces high levels of foreclosures and short sale situations.
All we can do is wait and see how it all pans out in the long run.