While the preliminary unemployment rate in San Francisco County hit the 8.0% mark in January, in February it hit 8.1% nationally. From Bloomberg:
The U.S. unemployment rate jumped in February to 8.1 percent, the highest level in more than a quarter century, a surge likely to send more Americans into bankruptcy and force further cutbacks in consumer spending.
Employers eliminated 651,000 jobs last month, the Labor Department said today in Washington. Losses have now exceeded 600,000 for three straight months, the first time that’s happened since the data began in 1939.
Do not underestimate the impact of unemployment on real estate, the brunt of which we believe has yet to be seen.
∙ U.S. Economy: Unemployment in U.S. Surged to 8.1% in February [Bloomberg]
∙ Unemployment In The San Francisco MSA Ticks Up To 7.5% [Socketsite]
∙ SocketSite’s Residential Real Estate Outlook For 2009 [SocketSite]
I prefer to think of it as 4000 jobs saved (better than 655k in January) 🙂
Well dub dub, the birth/death adjustment saved 490,000 of those jobs, swinging from -356K (January) to + 134K in February.
http://www.bls.gov/web/cesbd.htm
The San Joaquin Valley is running at 15% unemployment, so be thrilled with that 8% rate you’ve got. I’m still curious: who has the money to buy the million dollar houses?
dkzody: Rich people have the money.
The real question is whether there are more or less of them now than in 2008.
^ The forbes 2009 survey of number of millionaires nationally (and worldwide) will certainly be an interesting statistic to watch. I wonder how big of a nosedive that’ll take?