Tech Forecast – It’s Getting Really Really Really Cold Outside

It’s funny to me that last year this same time I had not a fear in the world over the State of Real Estate, even with the notion that the tech sector had put together a cash army and were ready to march on Real Estate. I’m still pretty okay with that, really.

But you know, it’s getting really chilly outside. It’s now officially coat season, and honestly, the forecast is for piles and piles of snow in the form of reasons for buyers to wait out the housing correction. As I light a fire, and prepare for Christmas, I worry about the techs and their army out there exposed to the elements. Were they counting on a correction of this magnitude? As Russell Shaw puts it, “two years” of brutally cold weather. Sure, there will be a couple of sun shinny days in the mix, but the overall forecast is for doom & gloom. When you have staff, overhead, and excessive developer costs the way some start-ups have, making payroll is a scary proposition around the beginning and end of February, will they hunker down with you? Meanwhile, I’m still warm and toasty by the fire, I’ve had to shed nothing, but then again, I didn’t need those big beautiful offices to impress our investors.

Yeah, our lifestyle compared to that of a tech company is much different- we can hibernate, but can they? I’ve got investors concerned about everything real estate, imagine needing a cap injection in the middle of a correction crisis and a credit crunch avalanche that is sure to follow. If the cap injection doesn’t come, will the new dot.realestates blame the traditional models? Will they blame the Associations? Or, will the blame rest on the back of the long cold winter… I guess I’ll go ponder those questions by the warm fire.