We are only a few days into 2010 and we are already seeing an uptick in relocation activity for many cities around the United States. Although the post-holiday increase is significant, even in the best years January is normally one of the slower months. Normally we see a significant increase in early March. This normally tapers off in about mid-September.
The last 18 months have not be typical. The colapse of the credit market starting in September 2008 and rising unemployment have hurt real estate sales and especially the relocation business.The slowly recovering economy still has failed to have the needed impact on the housing market -- despite two successive rebate programs. Yes, housing supply has reduced significantly. However, like unemployment, a full recovery of the real estate market will most certainly lag the recovery.
BuyersUSA Relocation covers over 5,000 US cities. For many of our traditional top cities, the flow of relocation traffic has been somewhat lower even though it has been constant. In fact, for some of those cities they are only attracting about 10% of the number of relocating home buyers seen during the Real Estate Bubble of 2006. However, this is changing quickly. For the past few months we have finally seen a return of relocating home buyers for many metropolitan areas for which we had seen a practical halt in home buyer relocation activity. This is great news for our struggling members in those areas.
We feel that the housing recovery -- and especially the relocation component -- will generally follow employment trends. The official unemployment rates appear to have peaked at 10.1%. Disenchanted workers are slowly returning to the work force. This will prevent a sudden reversal of the rate despite the fact that as the stock market continues to surge based upon steady corporate profit announcements and more jobs becoming available. Once this adjustment period finishes, we hope to see unemployment reduce and housing demand increase. Of course, this continues to be affected by the availability of reasonable credit and low mortgage rates.
Currently we the following cities are the top 20 relocation cities in America.
- Charlotte, NC
- Wilmington, NC
- Asheville, NC
- Atlanta, GA
- Jacksonville, FL
- Savannah, GA
- Raleigh, NC
- Flagstaff, AZ
- San Antonio, TX
- Greensboro, NC
- Grand Junction, CO
- Phoenix, AZ
- Tampa, FL
- Ocala, FL
- Anchorage, AK
- Charleston, SC
- Greenville, SC
- St Augustine, FL
- Chattanooga, TN
- Houston, TX
Specifically, we are seeing an increase once again in Florda, Arizona, and California, all areas that have been the most negatively affected by the Recession.
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