Some of Alan Ball's friends tell him he's
the most negative person they know
. So he laughed when SFR told him he was the most optimistic person we'd spoken to all day.
Ball, who manages Southwest Title & Escrow, keeps a close eye on Santa Fe housing sales and writes a monthly newsletter on the topic. It's been gloomy reading for some time. But July's home sales figures had him
sounding almost cheery
. Last month, he writes, brought "
the first increase, same period year to year, since June 2006!
We were due for some positive news..."
No kidding. But it was a slight—again,
slight
—improvement.
Santa Fe Chamber of Commerce President Simon Brackley tells SFR that Ball's news is somewhat encouraging, but "it's going to take a while until the construction industry recovers.
Until we get some building going on, the carpenters and roofers and plasterers are going to be hurting
."
Ball writes:
