Funds Blog

The Economic Components Behind the Boise Real Estate Market

The U.S. economy grew faster than initially thought in the fourth quarter as businesses drew down inventories at a much slower pace and boosted investment, a government report showed on Friday. As goes the nation, so goes the Boise real estate market, so this news is good to local industry insiders.

In its second reading of fourth-quarter gross domestic product, the Commerce Department said the economy grew at a 5.9% annual rate, rather than the 5.7% pace it estimated last month. It was still the fastest pace since the third quarter of 2003. Posting an impressive 2.2% increase, the third quarter led all to date. If we go back to the 2003 number the Boise real estate market would be on solid footing.

Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast GDP, which measures total goods and services output within U.S. borders, growing at a 5.7% rate in the October-December period. While the economy rebounded strongly in the second half of 2009 from the worst downturn since the 1930s, data so far suggests the rapid rate of acceleration slowed somewhat in the first quarter of 2010. Even thought consumer spending and the housing markets were down, the fact that businesses increased investment in software and equipment helped add some steadiness to the economy and allowed business to liquidate bloated inventories. Being part of the fabric of the national economy, Boise real estate definitely had similar results.

Demand remains low as indicated by the reduction in actual growth of 1.9% from the projected growth of 2.2%, which reduced inventories and brought some balance back. Inventory values were adjusted down from $33.5 billion initially, to $16.9 in the fourth quarter. They dropped $139.2 billion in the July-September period. The Gross Domestic Product was increased by 3.88% simply by the difference in inventory in that quarter. This was the biggest percentage contribution since the fourth quarter of 1987. With so many suppliers eliminating excess inventory, builders in the Boise real estate market were helped out.

In fact, since 1946 there not been such a dramatic shrinkage in the economy as the 2.4% drop recently. Even consumer spending projections had to be adjusted downward from 2% in January to the actual number of 1.7% increase. Although offset soon afterward, the “cash for clunkers” program drove GDP, by stimulating consumption, up by a respectable 2.8%. The disappointing news came from the consumer spending sector which added only a 1.23% GDP gain, which is low considering it is normally about 70% of GDP. The Boise real estate market has shared in the impact of the national financial crisis.

With spending on commercial real estate heading down quickly, the fact that the growth happened at all was due mostly because of equipment purchases and investment in software necessary for business growth and improvement. Increases in business investment, from a projected 2.9% to a 6.5% actual pace helped out a lot. It had dropped 5.9% over the prior three-month period. With everyone watching the housing markets, projections of 5.7% were down graded to about 5% in the fourth quarter. With growth as high as 18.9%, the third quarter was a busy one. The fourth quarter closed out with imports and exports showing stronger growth than expected, and contributing a .3% gain for the GDP, according to data sources. As GDP indicates our national economic states, Boise real estate eagerly awaits is significant turn around.