My Mortgage Blog

Somewhat stunned by the fact that Governor Chris Christie was lecturing California at the Republican National Convention on how to make the state more business-friendly—a topic that many people can easily wax extraordinarily serious and severe about—the Orange County Register’s Jonathan Lansner responded to the Governor with a recitation of facts in an article published August 30th.

He begins by noting that, as of the July 2012 census, the state’s population stood at 37,690,000, making it the most-populated state in the nation. Clearly, all the homeowners haven’t moved to and stayed in the state just for the groovy sunsets and the relatively easy access to Disneyland.

Lansner adds: “Plus, if Wyoming is so dandy – as many of these ‘pro-business’ surveys suggest – why does California have 66 times the population? Yes, 66 times Wyoming's 568,158 – or roughly Santa Ana.” Is it just that the winters in Wyoming can be harsher than, well, you know?

California’s population, it turns out, has grown 0.4% over the past five years. And, as you know, the past five years have not produced a bumper crop of new jobs. But only Louisiana, North Dakota and New York have outpaced California for job growth, and that is largely because of the oil shale developments beneath their ground—especially in North Dakota.

Back to jobs: the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced that California was the top jobs producer from July 2011 to July 2012, with 365,100 new jobs created.

Lansner also reports that, over the past two years, salaries in California have climbed by 7.5%. And during the same period, only three states experienced declining salaries: Nevada, Florida and Chris Christie’s New Jersey.

Some of this borders on being magical…in my eyes. We’ve been reading for many, many months that California is an economic basket case. You would have thought that at least half the businesses in the state would have packed up and moved by now, taking their companies to states that are apparently more business-friendly. But let’s face it. California remains one of the most innovative places to do business in the world. You are constantly rubbing shoulders here with people who are developing the next important innovations—the next Apple, perhaps.

I can’t explain that. There are somewhat magical ingredients in the fact that California’s real estate market tends to lead the real estate markets in other states out of the final stages of economic downturns. In past years, I remember telephone calls from real estate professionals, asking where they should move. Where’s the next really active marketplace going to be?

Almost invariably, I would suggest that they 1) stay in California because few places in our nation were about to outpace its recovery and 2) not only to stay, but also to beef up their business presence and marketing program. You see, when I was getting the calls, the market was beginning to turn.

Many people who played that turn with cleverness and courage (for a little risk is always involved in increasing one’s marketing program) made a lot of money and built or rebuilt very solid careers.

A good place to start: Dig deep into the reasons that today’s financing offers the best possibilities for long-term savings that we may ever see…and be ready to demonstrate this possibility to your clients and to show them how best to take advantage of the situation. Time, it seems, to go for it.