Upswing In Residential Home Prices
Like many other industries, land surveying is tied to the real estate market (both commercial and residential). As a company that prepares location drawings, I am acutely aware of the decline in the Washington, DC Metro area housing market in recent years. After the global economic downturn, Meridian Surveys witnessed a marked drop in location drawing requests. The explanation was really quite simple. Home sales translate to house location surveys. With the meltdown in the Maryland and Virginia housing market, fewer home sales meant fewer location drawing orders.
Fast forward to 2013. In recent weeks, I have started receiving regular orders from both commercial and residential construction companies we used to hear from only a once or twice a year. A little curious, I did some digging. I discovered (thanks to a press release on profsurv.com) that the residential housing market is officially on a rebound. During the first quarter alone, home prices nationwide have increased 10.9% over last year. In the Washington, DC area (where Meridian Surveys is based) the increase is a respectable 7.7% year over year.
While it is certainly not time to jump for joy, I know architects, civil engineers, landscape architects and land surveying firms like mine are happy to hear the good news.