We are in a recession...

So it is official, we are in a recession. But what is interesting is, that here in Buffalo it has not seemed that way.

Buffalo is a phenomenon, the subprime crisis, real estate bubble and credit crunch have not been a factor in the lives of the average Buffalonian. Since most major companies have left Buffalo long before the real estate bubble, we have not experienced large growth in demand for real estate or rising home prices. In fact, home prices and demand has been steady for years. One thing is for sure in Buffalo, there is a great chance that your home value will not change more than 1-4% in either direction, but more often than not it has gone up a mere 2 or 3 % over 10 years. So there was no bubble to burst here in Buffalo.

With a weak dollar, Buffalo has blossomed. This passed holiday season, Buffalo retailers have had some of the best sales numbers they have seen in years. Waves of Canadian's drove the short distance over the Peace Bridge to take advantage of a weak dollar and cheaper sales tax. It was probably one of the strongest influx of out of town funds this city has seen in a decade.

The weak dollar has also created an environment for businesses to be far more competitive with foreign companies, allowing US exports to climb quickly.

Federal Chairman Ben Bernanke has been pushing interest rates lower and lower. That means very inexpensive loans, in fact one of my colleagues in the financial industry has been telling all of his business owner clients to run to the banks and take out a loan. What is interesting is how it is affecting our local economy...

I recently updated my resume on monster.com. Within 2 business days I was contacted by 7 local recruiters and 2 non local. Normally it is the other way around. Every recruiter has had multiple jobs available for me to be presented to. From what I can tell, they are so many jobs available and not enough talent that the companies are accepting less qualified candidates with the understanding that they will be trained. For years, this has been unheard of in Buffalo.

As the Nation as a whole experiences rough times, Buffalo is blossoming... strange.

Chris