Flatlining

As I've been saying for months, we have missed the excesses of the subprime debacle. But our market is still very sluggish and there is a simple reason. Job growth is lousy. Unemployment remains below the national average but inches up every month. And job growth is essentially non-existent.

• NM unemployment was 4.1% in July -- up from 3.9% in June
• Albuquerque's figures are similar. 4.2% -- up from 4.0%
• Job growth state wide is just .9% for the past year and most of the gains are in the energy intensive area of Farmington.
• By contrast, Albuquerque's job growth for the past year is just about zero (.3%).

By far the biggest problem with our real estate market is a high inventory. No way are we going to reduce that with flat job growth.