Friday, March 21, 2008
Ask Your Neighbor
From the Miami Herald:
| For months, many economists believed neither South Florida nor the nation was in a recession or likely to enter one soon.How has the the current state of the economy affected you or your neighbors?
But in the last few weeks, those optimistic assessments have collided with new statistics showing record-high oil prices and vanishing jobs amid the escalating real estate meltdown. The experts have begun to accept what families like the Starrs have known for a while: Times are tough.
• Nearly 120,000 South Floridians were unemployed in January, up nearly 20 percent from a year earlier.
• South Florida gas prices are approaching $3.50 a gallon, up nearly $1 from this time last year.
• Nearly 7,500 homes were foreclosed upon in Miami-Dade and Broward counties in February, a whopping 150 percent increase from the same month in 2007.
''The short answer is, 'Yes, we are in a recession,' '' said Mark Vitner, an economist with Wachovia, who was saying as recently as last month that the nation might yet dodge the bullet.
But now, Vitner said: ''We have made that call. On a GDP basis, the declines we are looking for will be very modest. But from a man-in-the-street perspective, the slowdown is much worse than the GDP numbers would show.''
Labels: Money Matters
