Washington State Economic Outlook

I recently had the opportunity to attend the Thurston County Housing Summit at Saint Martin's University and listened to experts from the Washington State Economic and Revenue Forecast Council, as well as New Home Trends researchers and building professionals talk about the state of our local economy.

Here is a brief recap of housing related data:

• Of the roughly 200,000 jobs that were lost in Washington State since 2007, 1/3 of those were jobs lost in the construction industry.
• Nationally the inventory of new homes is the lowest it has been since 1971
  
• Historically, existing home sales, compared to new home sales, has been 5 to 1. Currently due to homes flooding the market due to foreclosures and short sales, the ratio is 14 to 1.
  
• During the next 10 years, Thurston County has a projected need for housing for 203,474 households. Due to lack of new development, inventories are projected to be low by 2014.
  
• In 2006, the height of the housing boom, the average new home was 2,563 square feet in size and cost $181 per square foot. In 2010 the average new home size is 2,321 square feet and the cost is $149 per square foot.

It was hard to see a light through all the gloom, but recent activity in pending home sales, along with low interest rates and a stronger currency, give some hope that things will begin to turn around.

Sandy Nelson
Olympia Realtor®, GRI, ASP, Built Green
360-789-7505
www.SandyNelsonRealEstate.com

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