Crystal Ball on Economy? (Denver: real estate, job market, prices)

[LARicky]

I know this stuff is impossible to predict, but anyone want to hazard a guess as to when the Denver economy will come back? We made mistake of taking job in LA, really want out and absolutely love Denver. Have to stay in Hell-A until the fall to cover move expenses, but will start looking for job shortly thereafter. Hoping economy will look better than today.

I love this page and the great people of Denver who respond (another reason we want to move there!)

[Charles]

Originally Posted by LARicky

I know this stuff is impossible to predict, but anyone want to hazard a guess as to when the Denver economy will come back? We made mistake of taking job in LA, really want out and absolutely love Denver. Have to stay in Hell-A until the fall to cover move expenses, but will start looking for job shortly thereafter. Hoping economy will look better than today.

I love this page and the great people of Denver who respond (another reason we want to move there!)

What line of work are you in? Some things might be correlated or inversely correlated with a "positive" economy.

For example, bad economy, maybe higher unemployment, maybe more crime, maybe more business for an alarm company.

[Katarina Witt]

Time will tell. I am not being saracastic; by fall you will know. That's the way the economy goes.

[LARicky]

My wife and I both have Masters Degree in Urban Planning. I work for a non-profit that deals with land use issues, I've written books, held conferences, etc. on land use and have been city planner and market and feasibility analyst. I know its not a great time to be on the private end (real estate development) but maybe with regional planning organization, another nonprofit, academic research group, or back to city planning. Not the most marketable skills but I've got over 15 years experience and have been published which may help.

[vegaspilgrim]

If I had to place a "futures bet" on what the economy will be like at the hypothetical Vegas sports book, I'd say recession will continue another 6 months at least, possibly up to another year, then things will start improving again, but at a very slow pace, possibly with some more mini-recessions over the course of the next few years. I don't see 1990's-style booming growth happening for a long, long time from now.

[LARicky]

Thanks VegasPilgrim, hopefully you're right, that would mean we'd bottom out sometime around October with very slow improvement through the winter and spring. I think you're right, but wouldn't rule out worse scenario depending how things play out in the next couple of months. I agree the boom times are over and unlikely anytime soon. So moderate growth will likely be the norm for a while, perhaps years, don't see housing prices spiking anytime soon either. Fingers crossed that I can catch a break in the Denver job market in late 2008-early 2009. Thanks to everyone for their helpful insights.