Dark mood an obstacle to market rebound
For those that follow the fortunes of the local real estate market, the recent Boston Globe/Suffolk University poll on the Massachusetts economy should be revealing.
While a number of economic indicators are starting to point up again, unemployment is not one of them.
And that has Bay State consumers fearful of losing their jobs and watching their spending carefully.
Nearly half, 44 percent, are concerned about keeping their jobs, and 15 percent are “very concerned.’’ That’s actually up from last spring, the article notes.
And at least the short-term outlook is pretty gloomy for most folks, the poll finds.
Just 21 percent think the economy will be better by the end of the year, and 41 percent it will actually be worse.
That’s a huge drop from the spring, when 42 percent were looking more optimistically to the prospect of a better economy by the end of the year.
All of which is not good news, at least short-term, for our local real estate market.
While there have been some encouraging numbers recently, there’s likely a limit to how far any rebound can go until the ranks of the jobless – and those that fear they will soon join them – starts to shrink.
For better or worse, the sour mood is also likely to given more ammunition to the industry groups lobbying to extend the home-buyer tax credit.
It is increasingly looking like the only thing driving demand at this point beyond the inevitable life changes everyone goes through.
As one real estate agent confided to me recently, there’s no “pop’’ in the market right now, nothing to create the sense of urgency needed to drive home sales.
Unemployment, and fear of it, is one very big anti-pop right now.
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