Pubdate: Thu, 19 Nov 2009
Source: Colorado Daily (Boulder, CO)
Copyright: 2009 New Colorado Daily, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.coloradodaily.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1557
Author: Peter Budoff
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)

REAL ESTATE EXPERTS: BOULDER HOUSING MARKET IMPROVING

Forum Speaker Also Says Medical Marijuana Dispensaries  Have Boosted
Commercial Market

The national and local real estate market is showing  signs of
improvement, but a full recovery will depend  on restoring consumer
confidence, housing experts said  at a Boulder forum Thursday.

Boulder remains somewhat insulated from the national  economic
struggles, Scot Smith, a broker with The  Colorado Group, told the
crowd at the second annual  Boulder Valley Real Estate Conference and
Forecast at  Boulder's Millennium Harvest House.

"This is a good place to be," Smith said. "When the  full recovery
begins, it will probably begin here."

Smith said that the presence of large local companies  and continued
strength in the energy industry and  others will continue to help
stabilize the Boulder  economy.

Commercial occupancy should increase slightly  throughout Boulder
Valley in 2010, while the area  should remain relatively insulated
from the national  wave of foreclosures, Smith said. Office vacancies
fell  to low of 12 percent in 2009, not as high as some  predicted.

Smith noted that in addition to governmental agencies  -- which were
the largest purchasers of commercial  property this year -- the
Boulder commercial real  estate sector has been boosted by an unlikely
industry:  medical marijuana dispensaries.

"We can only hope marijuana never gets regulated, so it  can lead us
out of this recession," he joked.

D.B. Wilson, managing broker of ReMax, said the  residential housing
market through the beginning of  2010 will continue to favor buyers,
with affordability  at an all-time high.

But prices, interest rates and mortgages are still  likely to
fluctuate through next year, and true market  stability won't come
until consumer confidence is  restored, several speakers said.

Sharp declines in wealth and increases in unemployment  have dropped
consumer confidence to near-historic lows,  said Patti Silverstein,
the chief economist of the  Metro Denver Economic Development
Corporation.

Confidence should improve as the economy does in 2010,  but the
improvement will be slow, Silverstein said.

"The recession from a technical standpoint probably  ended in the
third quarter of the last fiscal year,"  she said. "We will keep
moving out of the recession but  at an anemic pace." 
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jo-D