Salem Oregon #4, Really?

Are you ready for the recovery? Salem Real Estate Agent Melina Tomson discovered this article from Forbes Magazine proclaiming Salem to be the 4th best market "primed" for a recovery. According to Melina, the numbers may not be as positive as perceived by the data used by the magazine. Forbes used a snapshot of the first half of the year and as everyone in the Willamette Valley knows, there is always an up tick in sales when the weather dries out. This gives data the appearance that in recent months there is a sudden surge in home sales, which there is, but that is typical around here for the summer months. With an honest opnion like that, Melina should be high on anyone's list when looking for a real estate agent. I'm just happy that Salem made it high up on any list. Sometimes I wonder if they even look at Salem in these national surveys or just include us in the Portland metro area. The perception that we are sitting on a hot market may be good for the city in general. People all over the country are reading this stuff and talking about it around watercoolers at work. We're even higher on the list than Santa Barbara and Denver. Studying data on a computer screen in New York city is very different then collecting information walking the streets of downtown Salem. People around here are talking about how the city is in an upswing. There are more good choices for dining and people are getting together for weekend events around town. There has been a recent wave of development making downtown more livable along with efforts to consider sustainable lifestyles in the suburbs. Bicyclists are burning more calories instead of foreign fossil fuels as they race down our city streets toward the country roads. Drivers beware. With all of this data put together, I can't say Salem is prime for a recovery in the real estate market but I will say that someone moving here today is going to be living in a better city then if they had moved here five years ago.