Northern Virginia Job Growth

For several years now, I’ve been a member of the Mortgage Finance Forum at the Northern Virginia Association of Realtors (NVAR).  Each year we plan and host the Annual Economic Summit at George Mason University attended by over 500 Northern Virginia Realtors.  Dr. Stephen Fuller, Director of the GMU Center for Regional Analysis has presented the keynote address for the last several years.  Dr. Fuller presents the macroeconomic view of the metro-Washington D.C. area and specifically the Northern Virginia economy and how it affects the real estate market. The central theme year after year is the region’s phenomenal job growth.

Job growth is truly the drive behind the D.C. metro real estate market.  NVAR Realtor Update Magazine reports in the March 2007 issue that “on an annual basis the Washington metropolitan region added 71,800 jobs in 2006,” and that “as of December 2006 the region’s unemployment rate was 2.9% -- lowest in the country…”

As I tell my clients, not only are the jobs and the job growth here, but Northern Virginia and D.C. also have the highest paying jobs.  Most of my clients already realize this fact because this is the reason they have moved her.  This is reflected in the fact that the region’s economy has been creating more jobs in the high-paying category of Professional and Business Services than any other part of the country by a wide margin.

According to John McClain, Senior Fellow at GMU Center for Regional Analysis, “Northern Virginia has been the ‘gorilla’ in the metropolitan area’s strength…[having] added 136,000 jobs in Professional and Business Services sector,” over the past 10 years.  He reports that the outlook for the region’s economy in 2007 is that growth will continue to be strong.

Friends, a strong growing economy and strong job growth fuels a strong growing housing market.  This is the outlook for the future as we move towards the busy spring and summer real estate market.