CEDAR RAPIDS- The housing market may remain in a real tailspin in many parts of the country. But the forecast for the I-380 Technology Corridor between Cedar Rapids and Iowa City looks a lot brighter.

Hundreds of local business leaders participated in a Corridor Economic Forecast Luncheon on Wednesday. And the impact of the housing market and subprime mortgage crisis on the local economy in 2008 was the key topic of discussion.

Participants guessed that 2008 probably won't be a big year for new home construction. But a slight downturn shouldn't hurt the corridor economy that much either.

Kyle Skogman, President of Skogman Homes, said his construction company built 97 new homes last year. That was three fewer than in 2006. He's predicting about the same number of home starts in 2008.

Skogman said "the overall market is down a little more than what our company was--we are seeing that happen. So we're keeping an eye on that."

Some participants at the conference said one thing to keep an eye on is the price of homes. The Cedar Rapids Board of Realtors says the average price of all homes sold in 2006 was $152,296. In 2007, the average price was $156,119--an increase of just under $4,000.

However, if you single out new homes only, the price does show a drop of about $2,000 over the same period of time. And records show a decrease of 88 newly-constructed homes sold from 2006 to 2007.

But another forecast panel participant said there are good reasons the housing market hasn't fallen off as much here as elsewhere. Casey Cook, appraiser, said "the main one is jobs are holding up extremely well in Cedar Rapids--Rockwell Collins is fantastic...Aegon is doing well and the food industries are doing well too."

Another reason for cautious optimism about housing in the corridor in 2008 is the limited exposure to the subprime mortgage crisis. In Iowa about 30 percent of all home loans are considered subprime and at a higher risk of default. In Linn County, those riskier loans make up only 10 to 15 percent of the total.