Last week, I was privileged to attend a presentation by Leslie Appleton-Young.  Leslie is the Vice President of California Association of Realtors and their Chief Economist.

I have never heard Leslie speak before and was surprised with her vibrant personality and down to earth style.  it's always hard to deliver bad news to a room full of Pasadena realtors, but she did with style and ease.

It turns out that Leslie is a resident of Pasadena and has been living in our community for the last year and a half.  Pretty exciting for me since I'm hoping that I'll run into her one day at Pete's and will have an opportunity to pick her brain a bit. 

I will be writing a post over the next few days to share my thoughts on real estate market expectations for 2009 in Pasadena, but in the meantime, here's what Leslie shared with the real estate community.

Personal Consumption:

American consumers have been spending more and saving less.  For the first time since 1992, personal consumption dropped.  Simply, this means that people buy less which causes employers to cut back jobs.

California is losing more jobs on average - California's unemployment rate in August 2008 was 7.7% while United States as a whole was 6.1% in September 2008.

California Housing Permits:

New Housing Permits are down by 45.1% year to date in California - under 50,000 units compared to over 100,000 in 2007.  Builders are waiting for the existing inventory to be absorbed.

National Economy Outlook through 2009:

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