On Wednesday the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston published their Beige Book. This book analyzes the market in this area and how the economy is doing. There is good news here. The New England economy is growing stronger as retail, manufacturing and business services are reporting improved business conditions. It suggests that the residential real estate industry is still in the doldrums. In retail, the Fed's contacts indicate sales growth in the low double digits and overall growth as cautiously optimistic for 2011.
The bright spot in manufacturing is in the semiconductor industry where sales remain strong compared to 2009. The firms that were contacted by the Fed for this review expect spending in manufacturing to be in line with 2010. Advertising and consulting companies are reporting significant growth with a predicted increase in revenue ranging from 5 to 30 percent. On the down side the Fed reports that home and condo sales remain sluggish by any measure.
What we are seeing in our office and hearing from other agencies is that there is increased interest and activity which is always the precursor to increased sales. The sluggishness recorded in the entire New England sector does not mean that all the regions in all the areas are sluggish. As has been reported here in other posts, there are very strong areas of interest and growth in the communities in and around Boston.
Trulia reported a review they conducted with consumers and their home search activity for the first 10 days of 2011 and compared it to the same days in 2010. Consumer inquiries to real estate agents are up 54%. Visits to websites and Mobil sites are growing even faster and are up 66%. Property views are up 50%, mobile traffic is up an astounding 400%. On average Trulia consumers view more that 2.2M properties a day which equates to more than 900,000 properties per hour.
Breaking this all down an experience professional sees more than the Fed is reporting for our area. While Trulia's statistics are for the overall national industry, other indicators show similar levels of growth and interest here in the Boston area. This is more news you can use when talking to your clients and prospects. 2011 will be a good year in real estate.
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