In a lot of ways it feels like 2008 all over again. Uncertainty dominates the business world, and it’s invariably affecting the real estate market. Interest rates dropped a bit with the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank; the Fed hopes a little more liquidity to banking will help. What’s different from the crash of 2008? Quite a bit actually.
Sidebar: I’m going to point out here the therapeutic effect of expressing frustration on a computer and deleting it. I’ve written this paragraph a half-dozen times raging about various political an economic figures, then wisely deleted them because it would end up pissing someone off.
Needless to say the real estate market was among the chief causes of the 2008 crash, in 2023 it’s a symptom. I’m not into predicting the future, but we can all be fortunate that Dallas is going to be one of the top performers in the nation yet again. What that looks like I don’t know, but thus far we’re seeing real reflections of 2016 and 2017, which were good but not great years.
I took a trip down to New Orleans the weekend of the 18th to see a show. Anyone who has never been to the French Quarter owes themself the trip, but don’t expect to be there longer than a couple of days. It reminds me a lot of the West End, with turn of the 20th century buildings that have been endlessly repurposed, reconfigured and reconstructed. Every night it serves as a drunken playground to the United States, and every morning it is cleaned up and made ready for the next night. There’s a really cool energy to it, albeit dirty and certainly not a place I could live. Among the people I met was political strategist Donna Brazile. She was a very interesting, extraordinarily intelligent lady. Great handshaker.
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