MARKETS & TRENDS
DEMAND
Clearing Skies
THE BEST BETS FOR GOOD GROWTH
by Ingo Winzer
uring this year, it has been dif- ficult to figure out which local markets have the best potential for real estate investors. The pandemic not only cut growth in all markets but also changed how the economy is struc- tured. Some sectors, like healthcare, government, and restaurants, seem to have lost jobs for good. Construction and finance quickly rebounded because of a surge in home prices (and will ben- efit greatly from infrastructure spend - ing). The retail sector was pushed to lean more on online sales. The fallout from these changes, and others we can’t even identify yet, will be felt in changing levels of job growth and therefore changing demand for housing in many markets. The dust hasn’t settled yet, but we’re getting a clearer picture of which markets are most likely to have solid growth by tracking the growth of jobs in the business services sector. These are outside services that every business needs: from CPAs and temporary recep- tionists to computer engineering and office cleaning. Together they’re only 15 percent of all jobs but are a reliable indicator of local business activity. Nationally, business services jobs were up a sharp two percent in October, compared to the pre-pandemic level. Here are 10 markets with the strongest increase. There may be other reasons to wonder about investing there right now, such as sky-high prices, but as we emerge from the pandemic into a changed economy, these markets are clear bets for good growth. • D
JOB GROWTH
Business Services Average Home Price thousands North Port-Bradenton, FL 13% -2.0% $391 New Haven, CT (pictured) 11% 0.0% $279 Memphis, TN 11% -0.3% $230 San Antonio, TX 10% -0.4% $289 Colorado Springs, CO 10% 1.7% $383 Austin, TX 10% 1.5% $465 Fort Worth, TX 10% -0.6% $304 Cincinnati, OH 10% -0.9% $244 Camden, NJ 8% -1.8% $222 Tampa-St. Petersburg, FL 8% 0.1% $334 Total Jobs
LOCAL MARKET MONITOR, CARY NC
Our Investors Metro Analysis shows the opportunity and risk in 200 local real estate markets at www.LocalMarketMonitor.com. Including the Best Rent Range in all local zip codes.
Ingo Winzer is president of Local Market Monitor, which analyzes conditions in 300 U.S. markets, using such economic data as home values and growth in employment and population. Winzer, who has analyzed real estate markets for more than 20 years, was a founder and executive vice president of First Research, an industry research company that was acquired by Dun & Bradstreet in March 2007. He is a graduate of MIT and holds an MBA in finance from Boston University. Winzer resides in Cambridge, Mass. www.localmarketmonitor.com
60 | think realty magazine :: january – february 2022
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