MarketWatch reports on the list of best opportunities for real estate investors in housing focusing on those areas with renewed job growth, shrinking inventories and those in which demand has yet to pickup to a level significantly driving up prices. Many of these more desirable… Read more

Market Watch reports an analysis of the best five and bottom five housing markets in the country by Local Market Monitor for prices in the coming three years based on employment growth (jobs are everything), population growth and housing inventory (yes, supply and demand are… Read more

Houston–the Teflon® Economy and Real Estate Markets—A Few Scratches, But the Bad Stuff is Not Sticking and We Keep on Cooking….
Summary of the University of Houston’s Institute for Regional Forecasting Symposium Held November 8, 2011, Presented by Ted C. Jones
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Jobs are everything to the long-run health for the economy and housing markets.  But there really is no such thing as a national economy or housing market since each locality is so determinant. The following tables break-down job growth to the Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA)… Read more

If Indeed "History May Not Repeat Itself But It Certainly Does Rhyme," by Mark Twain, is true, why would anyone today buy a 10-Year U.S. Treasury Yielding 1.92 percent today? The U.S. is poised to run a deficit in the 2011 fiscal year (which ended… Read more

I presented at the Michigan Association of Realtors conference. Economist to Realtors: Michigan's economy is better than you think- mlive.com

Two weeks ago I spoke at the California Association of Mortgage Professionals (formerly the California Association of Mortgage Brokers) in San Jose regarding the economy, housing issues and trends.  It was a great break from the heat (which previously that week when I left Wichita,… Read more

I spoke this past month in Las Vegas—one of the hardest hit economies and real estate markets in the country.   Employment has finally ceased its downward plunge—but still has yet to really turn the corner.   As shown in the graph, Las Vegas-Paradise employment… Read more

At the Current Growth Rate, However, It Will Take More Than Five Years to Get Back to the Effective Employment Level Seen in March 2001. Good news is that the U.S. has finally commenced growing jobs.  March 2011 saw 216,000 net new additional jobs.  … Read more

Jobs are everything to an economy.  Period.  People with jobs buy houses, and so goes jobs so goes roof tops, and so goes the demand for commercial real estate.   The latest state-based numbers recently were released, and they provide a unique insight into how… Read more