You may have heard of The Kiplinger Letter.  We have been receiving and reading it every week for years now and have found it to be fairly good at forecasting economic trends.  We would like to share a few of their recent comments regarding changes over the next 10 to 25 years.

The labor supply will become much tighter, productivity will rise more slowly, inflation and wage hikes will be higher.  Baby boomers will be retiring and a lower percentage of women will work outside the home.

The Seattle-Bellevue-Everett area will see growth of more than 1 million jobs by 2030 (and we think the traffic is bad down there now)!

Most of the new jobs will be in services, with the fastest growth area being health care.  Maybe this has something to do with the aging of those baby boomers.

The global economy will further develop; more workers here will be competing with workers elsewhere in the world.  Kiplinger says, “Time and space are shrinking.”  Those involved with goods and services flowing in or out of the country will benefit. 

Social Security and Medicare will be rescued but there will be changes - perhaps an increase in the eligibility age for new workers.

So what does all this mean for us here in Bellingham?  My guess is that we will see continued growth pressures.  Our quality of life will continue to attract the retiree, the service provider who can work from anywhere as long as he has a computer, the family who wants to raise children out of a city, the small manufacturer who wants ready access to the Asian or Canadian markets (or vice versa).  At that means continued conflict among ourselves over how that growth will be handled.

So find your spot and hold on – there could be wild times ahead.  If you would like some help in planning your real estate investments in this changing climate, give us a call.�