On Monday, April 27th, the national FBI headquarters announced that it is opening a multimillion dollar computer forensic laboratory in Albuquerque. The new lab in Albuquerque and another one in Los Angeles will bring to 16 the number of computer forensic labs in the country. Albuquerque will be among one of the smallest cities to have such a lab. The lab will be located on the campus of the University of New Mexico and is expected to open in 2 years. To accomplist its goals the lab will partner with forensic experts at Los Alamos and Sandia national laboratories. Eventually the lab will be able to house 20 examiners. The FBI will provide training and equipment.

Garduno's is taking its tacos on the road. Founder Dave Garduno has announced plans to open franchises around the country. He already has locations in Phoenix and Las Vegas, with his sights set on 30 more in the next year, eventually as many as 600 to 750.

With 7 sites in New Mexico, 3 in Arizona,2 in Nevada and 4 more headed there, Garduno says he's had offers to go farther afield for years. "We weren't ready",he said. "now we're restructured to the point where I'm ready.

The newest Garduno's may show up in Texas,Colorado and Washington state, with more coming in Arizona. People from Washinton,D.C. have flown to New Mexico to look at his operation, Garduno said. For the time being all new restaurants will be franchised.

Fidelity HR services has already made a few local job offers and plans to have 300 to 350 employees by the end of the year at a temporary facility in southeast Albuquerque. A 200,000 square foot office building is under construction for Fidelity at Mesa del Sol, and the company expects to move in early next year. Until then, Fidelity will occupy the former Lockheed Martin building at the corner of University and Avenida Cesar Chavez SE, which is owned by the University of New Mexico. The company is remoldeling and plans to move there in early May. Fidelity expects to eventually employ up to 1,200 people in Albuquerque.

Fidelity HR is a 12-year old unit of financial giant Fedility Investments. It provides human resourses services for client companies, such as payroll, benifits, and talent management, and has offices in Raleigh, NC, Merrimack, NH; T0ronto and elsewhere. The company expects to pay local employees between $25,000 and $60,000 per year.

Officials from Schott Solar, along with state and city officials held a cermonial ground-breaking Monday for the company's plannd solar technology plant in Albuquerque. The company plans to have a $100 million, 200,000 square-foot plant up and running with in a year, which will employ 350 people.

Long term plans call for the plant to quadruple in size and eventually employ up to 1500 people, with a local economic impact of more than $1 billion.

Schott Solar, a subsidiary of Mainz, Germany-based glass making giant Schott AG, will use the Albuquerque plant to produce solar panels. Plans call for Schott to eventually invest up to $500 million in the local facility and to eventually produce solar cells here.

Suppliers to Northrop Grumman will create up to 400 aerospace jobs in Albquerque as part of efforts to support a $35billion contract with the air force for military refueling planes. The new jobs will be created at Honeywell's Albuquerque facility; GE aircraft Engines, which has an Albuquerque plant; and 2 of GE's local suppliers, Sun Country Industries and Mach2 Machining.

Based on Department of Labor assumptions that one high tech job drives the creation of more that four support jobs, ranging from car dealers to coffee shops, the contract could ultimately cause the creation of up to 1800 local jobs. The contract will directly inject $40 million into the local economy per year.

• Demember 2006
• February 2007
  
• March 2007
• July 2007

The year 2007 was a banner year for home sellers in the Albuquerque area, with houses fetching the highest prices on record. But if January sales numbers are an accurate forecast, 2008 will be more favorable for the buyer.
The average sale price for an existing single family home last year was $243,089, a 6% increase over 2006. Data from the first month of 2008 says a different story could be in the Albuquerque metro area's future. Home sale prices are down an average of 2.8% this January compared with the same month last year, and the average number of days on the market is longer than it has been in the last 12 months. The number homes sold at the first of this year, too,is down. January sales declined by nearly 40% over the same month last year.

Labels: Real Estate Market

Turning the corner into a new year, those adverse to change can rest easy. The local housing market is not likely to alter its pace much, aside from the annual uptick in sales come spring and summer, accordimg to forecasts by industry professionals. Whether the status quo is good or bad; depends on whether you're a buyer or seller, on whether your a builder selling a new home, or an individual selling an existing home, on whether you have expectations that fit with 2008 or whether you're still living in 2004. Thats when many houses sold in a matter of days, at record high prices, keeping inventory low and buyers scrambling to sign purchase afreements. That's no longer the case.
Experts predict a slow market in 2008. But even a slow market isn't all that bad, as interest rates remain low, falling again below 6%, and the inventory remains between 5,000 and 6,000 homes in the metro area giving buyers a choice. Experts agree that 2008 may be a best year to buy.
Specifically, professionals predict the following in the next 11 months:
# The first time home buyer market-houses priced less than $200,000- is strong and will remain so because those folks don't have the burden of first trying to sell the home they're living in.
#Prices will remain lower, especially on new homes, because of the high inventory. Builders will continue to offer incentives, giving new home sales a competitive edge over existing homes, since you or I cannot offer $20,000 in incentives.
#Subdivisions slated to be built will stall, or builders will start selling off lots because inventory is already high.
# Both national and local forecasters believe the market could turn positive in the third quarter of this year.
However, down is the key word in the latest monthly report on the local residential real estate market. Home sales prices are down, the number of homes sold is down and the number of new listings are down. Though the average and median sales prices have fluctuated for several months, November's lower prices are the result of all of the competition. The median sales price in Nov. was $189,450, down from $192,000 last year. The average sales price was $233,950, down from $242.061 the year before.

International financial giant Fidelity Investmants announced today that it will open an office at Mesa Del Sol with 1,200 high paying jobs. Fidelity plans to build a 200,000 square foot office at the master planned development southwest of downtown. The office is scheduled to open in early 2009. Employees there would perform white-collar tasks such as human resources, with an averafe annual salary of $60,000.
The announcement comes within days of another economic development coup for the city and state. On Tuesday, Gov. Bill Richardson anounced the decision by German glass giant Schott AG to open a solar equipment plant, also at Mesa Del Sol.
Fidelity Investments brovides brokerage and retirement services estate planning, wealth management,life insurance and other investment products, along with operating several mutual funds. It had revenues of nearly $13 billion last year and employs 41,000 people around the world.