When it Rains...

...It freakin' pours. Well, I got laid off from my job yesterday. Shocker, eh? It was to me, considering I was recruited to Symphony Homes only 7 months ago from another home builder. I am not suprised by, nor do I resent the business owner's need to perform more lay-offs considering market conditions in the Real Estate industry right now.. By 12:30 yesterday afternoon, my few belongings were packed and all the great dreams I had for myself and my career were left with the key to the building. I couldn't even cry about it - still can't - because if you know me at all, you'll understand that my life is ever presenting me with new challenges to face and new opportunities to become someone entirely different (about every 2 years.) I think this is a genetic fatalistic pre-disposition I was encoded with from my natural mother...

I could bitch and moan about the whole circumstance, but what does that get me?

I am scared because I specialize in Residential New Construction and that market segment is most affected by unstable economic conditions - so my integration into a new job in this industry isn't looking too probable - or stable.

Most forecasts for the 2008 year predict a slow year across the nation; many people are calling this the "Clean Out Year" for the Utah market insomuch that many investor's inventory homes which flooded and rode the market spur during the 90's-2006 will be forced to reduce prices, bring the average median home price down (thank God) and increasing the number of home buyers in the 20-30 year-old demographic. Most projectors are saying that home builder's who target that demographic of buyer will survive the weather of 2008.

Most predictors also hold that, despite the recent release of the Economy Boost Package from Government, "cheaper-priced markets are more likely to be healthier, as loan activity is less constrained. Still, no market finds itself in a boom, and discussing which markets are the healthiest 'is a relative term.'" -Forbes.com

Check these websites out if you want more prediction information:

http://www.realtor.org/RMODaily.nsf/pages/News2008011605?OpenDocument

http://theutahrealestateblog.com/2008/01/2008-utah-real-estate-forecast.html

http://www.forbes.com/2007/10/01/property-stable-homes-forbeslife-cx_mw_1001realestate.html

http://utahhomesforsale.wordpress.com/2008/01/16/utah-housing-market-outlook-is-it-a-good-time-to-buy/

Point of all of this is: everything goes full-circle, and right now we are on the bottom half of the cirlce. Some sophisticates report the market will pick up in 2009. Some crazies say this is the beginning of the most significant recession we've seen since the early century, and that it'll take a decade or so to process. Let's all hope for high job-growth and clean-up in the mortgage lending industry - or else everyone in the Construction/Real Estate world will be applying for jobs as Order Cooks at Denny's.

I'm trying not to mope or get down about my circumstance, though I'm hurt and mad and scared. I found the tallest, steepest hillside I could find in Farmington yesterday and made myself run up it as hard and as fast as I could until I just didn't want to run up it anymore. Then I made myself run down and up again. It was therapeutic, the physical realization that it's just gonna have to hurt like hell to get back up to the top, and all I can do is try to get there as fast and as hard as I can.

More than ever, I am thankful to have a wonderful man beside me who has chosen to saddle up and ride the most dangerous and dynamic "roller coaster" portion of my life with me for the last couple years, who supports and (sometimes crazily)believes in what I am capable of building with our future. He is my strength and my best friend. Without him, and the support of my family, I'd have just flung myself off that damn mountain yesterday, LOL.
I love you, Chris.

As for the rest of you, if you know of any career pportunities available, please let me know. Otherwise, I'll post again when I find something new.

Maybe this is my opportunity to "re-calibrate"my expectations of myself and really "re-choose" the direction I want my life to take. Maybe it's my opportunity to re-evaluate the resentments I've held for not doing the things I felt I should have.

Sounds like it's time to find and fall in-love with my old dreams again...

This is one of my favorite pieces; makes me appreciate the dreamers and risk-takers:

"Homage to the Divers"
A love poem at the bottom
of the sea, in a treasure ship,
reachable, yes,
we must believe reachable.
In an air-tight container
somewhere in the captain's quarters,
somewhere off Hatteras,
written by...
And a key in a skeleton's hand
and the whole world up above
diving for it,
some with all the equipment,
some holding their breath.

-Stephan Dunn, "A Circus of Needs"