Good morning all: I hope you're enjoying your weekend! For so long, people seemed to be crowing up here in the Northwest that we had dodged a bullet. That we were more immune to the national downturn going on. I always wondered. After all, we're usually the last to get hit.
With the advent of the New Year came the announcement that Microsoft was laying off 5,000 workers over the next 18 months and Starbucks may lay off up to a third of it's corporate staff. This tells me that the national slowdown has finally hit us. Granted, real estate has been very slow since August 2007 for all practical purposes. That was the day American Home Mortgage failed and the market reacted. I actually think there might be an uptick in real estate starting either this Spring or Summer.
But the warning signs here are many. Retailers are hurting, home prices are down 15% across the board and banks are not lending and declaring losses. So even though I expect 2009 to be better than 2008 (how could it not be? '08 was pretty rough), don't expect the economy to turn on a dime. Every time we turn around there's some new announcement about corporate earnings, layoffs, etc. that sends the market into a new funk. I wish you all well this year. I believe we'll get through this; it's just going to take some gumption. Have a great day!
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