Watch for more coverage of RealShare Minneapolis on Monday.
MINNEAPOLIS-The recovery in the Twin Cities real estate market is real. That was the rough consensus of the six Town Hall panelists that spoke in front of an audience of about 200 area real estate professionals at the second annual RealShare Minneapolis, held yesterday at the Sheraton Bloomington.
The consensus was provisional, however, since, "it depends where you stand," said Steve Hoyt, CEO of Hoyt Properties. "If you're a seller, life is good. If you develop retail, it's good. But a lot of brokers have to work a lot harder than a few years ago just to maintain the same volume."
Colin Barr, VP of development at the Ryan Cos., said that the next cycle of growth won't be like the previous ones, in that demand for certain kinds of properties--office especially--may never bee what it once was. Still, he said that when demand for office does return, it will be for suburban office properties.
According to Jim Vos, principle at Cresa Partners, "the recovery is a function of job growth. We're seeing that, but perhaps it's hard to tell by the way job growth is measured." He noted that nationally GDP is up and worker productivity is up, "and those are the marks of a jobless recovery."
But, he added, those numbers don't measure other kinds of job growth very well. "It's the small businesses that are growing in this market, the consultants that meet every week in Starbuck's to plan their next move. They're forming businesses that will be the engines that drive hiring."
Greg Moyer, managing director and regional manager of Marcus & Millichap, noted that from a regional perspective, he anticipates job growth. "There will be 25,000 to 35,000 new jobs in the Midwest in the coming year, following three years of job losses, except for retail. This market's going to see some of that growth, since the fundamentals are good here."
In fact, Vos wondered, Minneapolis/St. Paul might soon face a labor shortage, at least in high-paying, knowledge-based industries. "We need to do a better job of keeping our talented young people here. Too many of them go to either coast, and if we want to grow those industries here, we have to persuade them to stay."
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