Cooling Real Estate Market Has Diverse Impact

The region's booming real estate market is showing some signs of slowing down, and this could have an impact on all of the professional service firms that are joined at the hip with developers and homebuilders.

There is evidence that the red hot real estate market has cooled, with homes sitting on the market longer, some high-rise condo project being put on the back-burner, and inflation and raw material shortages taking a bite out of new construction.

Real estate accounts for 226,000 direct jobs in construction, leasing, brokerage and property management. There are also thousands of other jobs tied to the sector in finance, law and other services.

Most industry observers see the recent slowdown as a market correction, but a true slowdown could have a negative effect on the local economy. More...