Greetings and welcome. I'm joining that Wasserman fellow on the Home Front blog (I know, I should have brought cookies or something for my first day) and will be focusing mainly on the economy. But while the topic is slightly different, there's a good reason my work will appear on Home Front: Real estate and economics are so closely intertwined these days, it's impossible to separate the two.
Real estate essentially fueled Sacramento's economy for a few years, and now it's dragged us into what's looking like a significant recession. We almost take it for granted now, but I was reminded of this linkage earlier this week when I was attending a real estate forecast sponsored by Sullivan Group Real Estate Advisors.
I met a developer from the Reno area named Skylo Dangler, who was complaining in rather salty language (with a name like that, he figured to be a colorful character) about the current leadership in Washington. Specifically, he was upset that Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke had maintained for quite some time that the real estate downturn wasn't bleeding into the rest of the economy. To Dangler, it was quite obvious that the housing market's collapse would cause significant harm to the general economy. Frankly, based on the reporting we've done here for the past two or three years, I'd have to agree with him.
Of course, nowadays the daily news brings fresh reminders of the relationship between real estate and the economy. Our story in today's Bee talks about CalPERS' housing troubles and its effect on the pension fund's shrinking investment portfolio.
Anyhow, thanks for tuning in. We're planning on adding more goodies soon, including some regional economic data. Feel free to chime in with your thoughts.
About Comments
Reader comments on Sacbee.com are the opinions of the writer, not The Sacramento Bee. If you see an objectionable comment, click the "report abuse" button below it. We will delete comments containing inappropriate links, obscenities, hate speech, and personal attacks. Flagrant or repeat violators will be banned. See more about comments here.