Saturday, June 13, 2009

Recession not hurting D.C. metro area

The D.C. metro area economy thrives in the age of big government:
At least there's one place in America that's wearing like Teflon through the recession: Washington, D.C. Most corners of the economy may be struggling, but in the nation's capital it's boom times, baby.

According to new data, the area's unemployment rate dropped to 5.6% in April from 5.9% in March. This is the second consecutive month of improvement for Washingtonians, and it's leagues from the national unemployment rate, which hit 9.4% in May.

With unemployment for all government workers about half the private sector's rate, the Beltway has been spared the tightening elsewhere. ...

As [Senator Mark] Warner put it to the Washington Business Journal, "It helps to be where the money is."

9 comments:

  1. "According to new data, the area's unemployment rate dropped to 5.6% in April from 5.9% in March."

    Yeah well funding stopped on two projects that my company was working on for the government. Our boss just cut everyone's pay 10% across the board. I didn't lose my job but I wouldn't call it "boom time"....unless you are a construction worker putting up speeding cameras.

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  2. B..B..But this is impossible. NOZ told me so. NOZ laughed at the idea that the govt might spend some money here, and that might lessen the extent of the downturn.

    Im so confused...NOZ told me its not different here...

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  3. Recall too that NONPARTISAN tell us that fundamentals like "income" and in this case "unemployment" are bubble myths and mantras.

    NONPARTISAN told us everywhere will be as bad as detroit because the "bell curve will be completed". Apparently that is one mantra that is factual...

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  4. "WAL" (Watch and learn)

    Home prices will follow the curve. Check back in 1 year.

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  5. I cant believe people don't see prices still tanking in the DC metro area. Every month Montgomery county home prices drop at least 10 grand.

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  6. Did you all see MRIS stats in Arlington. Median prices are up +11% YOY. Probably something of a blip, but man, this was the year that the magical city was supposed to lose its veil of immunity and drop 20% - proving its not "different" than anywhere else in DC. Maybe all those smug assholes were right afterall.

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  7. "nonpartisan said...
    "WAL" (Watch and learn)

    Home prices will follow the curve. Check back in 1 year."

    Believe me I will. Ive been witness to several "come back in X amount of time" challenges over the last 4+ years on this blog. Starting with the laughable 2005 prediction of "DC proper will be down 20-30% by the end of 2007" (it went down 3.08% by the way), to the more recent "Arlington will have 14-20 months of inventory by Christmas 2008" (it peaked out at about half that level).

    Now weve got the 1998 case shiller levels for DC. Ive popped some popcorn and am going to enjoy watching the show over the next year. See you next month for a progress report!

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  8. "Believe me I will. Ive been witness to several "come back in X amount of time" challenges over the last 4+ years on this blog."

    Thats funny cause 3 years ago prices were still rising on a national level. Things didn't really start tanking until 2008. It took 8 years to reach 2006/2007 prices, you think the correction will end in first quarter 2009???

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  9. Not really...this is a federal issue...so you're as screwed as we are. Enjoy.

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