The 'Sunwest Bank 2020 Economic Forum' was held in Boise on November 5, 2020. It was interesting to be at a live event again and was facilitated by the Boise Center very well.

At the forum CEO Eric Hovde, gave a great presentation, starting with his thoughts and facts on Covid-19 and the effect on the economy and society in 2020. 

It was interesting to see the two slides he put together based on which presidential candidate gets elected.

The 2021 predictions are a little uncertain. One part that was interesting to me was the prediction of white-collar job layoffs. Eric mentioned there are banks already starting this, and he believes that will increase throughout the next year. A second stimulus package will have a short term impact on how all of this plays out and have some challenging long term implications for our country to dig out of after the stimulus high wears off.

His predictions on interest rates and equity markets suggest good things for Idaho’s real estate market. The increase in demographic shifts from high-cost, high-tax states, coupled with low-interest rates, will continue to push demand and values higher in our real estate market. This is showed in the next photo, with Idaho being the biggest winner by the percentage of net domestic migration.