Jul 8, 2008

absorption

Source: Greater Baltimore Board of Realtors

Going into 2008 the economic prognosticators were guarded about how the national economy would affect Downtown's.

We interviewed 68 regional business leaders for our recent
State of Downtown Report, and nearly all of them felt that things wouldn't be great, economically-speaking, but that Downtown's strengths would keep it from struggling the way it did during the downturn in the early 1990s.

It's looking like they were right. A growing number of mid-year reports shows that Baltimore is doing well within the region, in spite of all the bad news about the national economy.

An office market analysis by
Colliers Pinkard shows that, in Downtown and Howard County, absorption of new office space exceeded the pace of delivery.

And data compiled by the Greater Baltimore Board of Realtors shows Baltimore City home prices haven't fallen the way they have in the surrounding counties (see chart above).

There's still a lot of uncertainty out there. But there's no denying that the city's economy is light years ahead of where it was even a decade ago.

-Mike Evitts