Remarkably, after a year of intense rafting on the river of financial crisis we’ve somehow managed to avoid either a complete collapse of our economic system or a slide into another Great Depression. But in the process of surviving the current crisis that has come to be known as the Great Recession (we have survived, haven’t we?) we are now coming to grips with the bitter reality that the financial security we had all become accustomed to will take much longer to return to that warm and fuzzy place we call a financial comfort zone here in the Southern Oregon Real Estate Market.

Knowledgeable economists now inform us that the worst recession since the 1930‘s is finally at its end. While this is good news, it’s hardly enough to go hat-throwing and dancing-in-the-street. Instead, it is time for a reality check on what Depressions and Recessions are all about. Since 1854, the National Bureau of Economic Research, aka NBER, has identified a total of 32 recessions. On the average, these recessions have lasted 17 months. And from 1854 through the Great Depression of the 1930’s, financial recessions seem to share a lot in common. For example, they are usually preceded by speculative bubbles — real estate in 1819, railroads in 1820, and real estate again in 2006. Recession may also share financial panics which were involved in 1907 and in the October crash of 1929. And whenever there has been a panic, the panic has been accompanied by government intervention and political instability.

The recovery from our present economic recession is currently threatened by continuing unemployment, a depreciation in the price of homes, enormous deficit spending, the accompanying risk of rising interest rates, inflation, and geo-political unrest. Nearly every recession has been treated with recovery strategies that today sound very familiar, including government-funded monetary stimulus, corporate bailouts or bankruptcies, and growth in emerging markets. And while some of these factors sound very familiar, fortunately we find ourselves slowly creeping out from under a recessionary rock and a depressionary hard place.

But ever the optimist, I point out that:

1. We’ve seen the worst of it.

2. While it may be slow, the recovery is underway, and…

3. Depressed housing prices in the Southern Oregon Real Estate Market and elsewhere represent a golden opportunity for investors and first-time home owners.

Finally, consider this: we’re all in this together so count your blessings that we as Americans still live in the country with the Number One most durable and prosperous economic system on the planet.

Michael Masters

A Socially Conscious Real Estate Consultant

     

More on Topics: Depression, Great, Great Depression, Market, Oregon, Real Estate, Real Estate Market, Recessions, Southern, Southern Oregon, Southern Oregon Real Estate, Southern Oregon Real Estate Market, The Great Depression

Tags: Depression, Great, Great Depression, Market, Oregon, Real Estate, Real Estate Market, Recessions, Southern, Southern Oregon, Southern Oregon Real Estate, Southern Oregon Real Estate Market, The Great Depression

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 7th, 2009 at 9:00 am and is filed under the category Grants Pass Real Estate, Green Real Estate, Michael Masters, Real Estate, Southern Oregon Real Estate. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.