Real estate offices have been gearing up for the imminent
spring selling season, the time when New Orleans listings swell to meet the
expected surge in buying activity. I sometimes put quotes around ‘selling
season’ because so many factors go into home sales that it can be slightly
misleading—we do sell homes all year
long, after all!
But there is a lot of truth (and historical verification) to
the idea that springtime brings a burst of new New Orleans listings and accompanying
selling activity. There can be lots of reasons why that happens, but this past weekend, area homeowners who were reading The Wall Street Journal might have seen some
extra reasons to hurry up and add their homes to the New Orleans listings.
Some of those reasons have to do with weather; some with
the economy.
The front page of WSJ’s
Weekend Edition headlined the first piece of long-awaited good news: “Job
Rebound Eases Fears of Spring Stall.” It explained that Friday’s payroll numbers showed upticks despite the widespread
harsh weather that should have knocked them down.
Most economists had been on the fence about whether the
years-long weak economic recovery would continue. Even though the previous two
months of slowing growth had been attributed to the ‘endless winter’ blanketing
much of the nation, it wasn’t clear that underlying weakness wasn’t also
present. But the sudden improvement in the job picture, even as the weather
failed to lighten up, was an unexpected event—one that could “ease worries”
about the likelihood of a fundamental slowdown. In fact, forecasters were
beginning to project that the negative economic effects due to the unusual
weather (estimated at a loss of 1%) may be more than restored when the sun
returns. Spring conditions are now expected to add an additional 1.2% to second
quarter growth.
Even a slight rise in the unemployment rate was greeted as
hopeful news. What sounded like a negative turns out to be the opposite: more
people were returning to the workforce, a sure sign that workers see jobs beginning
to reappear. Jobs have always been tied to real estate listing and sales
activity, so this year, the NAR’s website truism may be on the mark:
“Spring brings rain and flowers –
and possibly extra green in the final sales price of your home.”
Terez Harris NOLA Real Estate Group
(504)297-2619
Keller Williams Realty New Orleans 8601 Leake Ave. New Orleans, LA 70118 504-862-0100
Each office independently owned and operated. All brokers licensed in the state of Louisiana.
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