Housing and economic growth
The ripple effect of housing -- for good and for bad -- has been impossible to miss this decade. If you needed any more reminders, the federal government this morning released new numbers showing that the economic slowdown in states last year "was most pronounced" in Arizona, California, Florida and Nevada. Yes, the hard-hit housing-slump states -- the ones that during the boom saw both prices and their economies grow faster than average.
Economic growth also decelerated in Maryland, but not as dramatically. The increase in gross domestic product here was 2 percent in 2007, compared with 2.3 percent in 2006. (Nevada, by contrast, went from 5.4 percent growth in '06 to 0.6 percent last year. Florida registered zero growth last year.)
Last year's growth puts Maryland squarely in the middle of the pack nationwide.
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