I think it’s clear we all want to open and be safe - by Christian Stallkamp

With Memorial Day now in the rear view mirror and headed into summer, states across the county are beginning to cautiously open up businesses across all sectors.  In VT, NH, Maine and Mass. all the states have their own version of how to re-open and what that will look like.  And even in those communities there are different rules and regulations.  Although we would like to see some consistency across the board, I think’s it’s clear that all companies, states and communities and people living and working within them want to be open and be safe.  It’s a difficult balance and a challenge to manage when you have new data coming in daily and such diverse landscape of businesses.  I don’t think anyone can say with confidence which way is the proper way about getting businesses open again unless you’re Monday Morning quarterbacking but it’s great to see some level of normalcy coming back.  

What we are coming back to though is something different.  Not just how offices look with plexiglass dividers and arrows pointing people in different directions or meetings with masks and thermometers. But the sentiment is that the long commercial upswing that we’ve seen over the past 10 years has definitely slowed or ended. In good times it’s hard to remember but if we look back at economic data real estate does have a cyclical cycle.  The big question now is what will happen next? I don’t have that answer but what is certain or a constant is that as brokers we help navigate companies and investors through good times and bad to find positive outcomes.  And in the hardest times you can really solidify relationships working through tough and difficult problems.  

This new economic landscape could have been a lot worse without the massive stimulus programs rolled out in impressive time. This is not just the two rounds of PPP money and SBA Loans and buying up over $750 billion in corporate bonds but an investment by the Federal Reserve of up to $6.6 trillion into the economy to act as a backstop and could invest up to $10 trillion in the coming months.  Economists I’m sure will be digging into what long term effects that will have on our economy but without all of this I think we would be looking at an entirely different challenge.

No matter what, we are all in this together, day by day. Right now  I’m enjoying the mental boost of nice weather!

Christian Stallkamp is a senior broker with The Boulos Co., Portsmouth, N.H. and is the 2020 president of the N.H Commercial Investment Board of Realtors, Bedford, N.H.