Ocean City Points of Interest

I have just returned from Las Vegas this week and from what I observed was plenty of activity on the Las Vegas Strip as well as Downtown under the Canopy, yet everyone you talk to says the economy is down 25%. Granted there are an abundance of properties to purchase because the Vegas market led all others in the past housing climb which then became the leader in the "try to buy and flip" market. Of course it seems only right that there should be a slower housing market, but from the number of people in town eating, taking in the shows, and gambling indications tell me it is starting to firm up there. In our regional area it appears even better, Wes Foster, the owner of Long and Foster Real Estate sent me this e-mail that highlights the conference that has recently concluded. I would like to share the information with you at this time.Greater Washington Economic ConferenceDr. Steve Fuller, Economist at George Mason University says “The payroll job loss as likely to go deeper and longer – perhaps 18-20 months. There are currently 13 million unemployed, and many of these people will stay unemployed because the new jobs will have different qualifications than those for the people getting laid off. He predicted oil will still be below $80 per bbl in 2011. Normally there are 5 million house sales per year (it got up to 7 million a few years ago), and we are currently around 4.5 million now. Consumer spending will be a negative 1% in 2009 vs the normal 2.5% growth per year.The Washington economy will have a 1.5% growth in GDP vs the negative nationally due the presence of the federal government. Where Detroit has autos; LA, films; Houston, oil; a third of our economy is directly tied into the feds, and that component is rising. Federal spending here will total some $135 billion in 2009. Federal procurement dollars have tripled over the last 10 years with much of the corresponding job growth going to Northern VA. Job growth has averaged 46,500 per year since 1991 with some recent years as follows:2003 – 56,0002004 – 71,0002005 – 63,0002007 – 29,0002008 – With one more month’s numbers to come in, he thinks it will net out at 25,000Washington is double the national job growth rate in professional and business services which have an annual salary of $75,000. Due to the region’s wealth, our retail trade job growth is 3 times the national average, and other services (such as daycare, etc.) twice. Steve sees the spread between our unemployment rate and the national rate (now 3%) perhaps growing to a 4% spread. He thinks our economy will begin to rebound the second half of 2009 with a total net new job growth of 230,300 for the region over the next 5 years as follows:2009 – 23,7002010 – 36,5002011 – 42,4002012 – 48,1002013 – 54,000Of these new jobs, Northern VA will have 125,900 and Suburban MD, 66,000.Needless to say, we are very fortunate to be living and working in this area for a number of reasons.
Posted by Joe Realtor at 10:43 AM

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