Jobs and the Housing Market

I have always felt that the health of any housing market was dependent upon the number of jobs that were being created, or lost, as the case may be.  The Southern California real estate market went in the tank in the early 1990's because of the loss of 300,000 jobs in the aerospace and construction industries.

Lots of Northern California counties did not implode during the dot com crash a few years back, but in Santa Clara County, the loss of all those jobs in Silicon Valley had a terrible effect on real estate values until the employment came back!

I hear that small towns in the Mid-West have attracted new small businesses.  Properly so as I think that a lot of people will get fed up with the pollution and congestion in urban areas and will move to places where small-town ethics are alive and well.  But there is a problem.  In a town that had static or declining population, there aren't any extra houses to go around. When you create 50 jobs, someone is going to have to go there and build 50 new homes.

So if you are concerned about the health of the housing market in your area, like if there’s a bubble or not, take a good look at how many jobs are being created.