Sub Prime and Keller

by Doug Miller of Keller City Limits

It’s the new catch phrase of the past 30 days….Sub Prime, and the financial crisis that goes along with the collapse of the Sub Prime Lending Market.

How does it affect Keller, you ask? Mortgage lenders are already tightening requirements to borrow money. When that happens, housing slows down. When housing slows down, commercial real estate development will eventually slow down. The big “R” word gets even bigger.

The D/FW area has been immune from the collapse of housing prices because we never saw a huge run up. But if the sub prime collapse creeps into the mid prime and the prime market, it will hurt the whole country. Keller included.

The last time we had a mini ”R” word in Keller was after 9/11. The city instituted a hiring freeze, a wage freeze and numerous other items to get through the rough times. How bad would it get if there were a true “R” word? You see, the city lives paycheck to paycheck and we have a lot of debt. We built brand new buildings thinking that there would never be a slowdown……..but just what if?

Something you might ask your local candidate, as it is also a problem for KISD.

BTW, I won’t type the word that is associated with the “R” word…..bad karma. In the construction business, you take as much as you can get when things are good, and you break out the beans and cornbread when things are bad. You can never have too much good karma to ward off the “R” word.