Number of homes in foreclosure in Tennessee: almost 33,000 as of November 2007
Projected loss to the Gross Metropolitan Product of Nashville this year: $901.6 million
Memphis: $482 million
Knoxville: $311.9 million
Kingsport/Bristol: $109.9 million
Chattanooga: $166.3 million
The economy isn’t failing. Has it hit a rough patch? For certain. The subprime mortgage crisis, though it affects about 2 percent of all current mortgages, has put a dent in the housing market. But employment remains strong and inflation remains low. Nationally, the economy has not yet suffered one month of negative growth, much less the two consecutive quarters (six months) that are required before the economy can be said to be in recession. In Tennessee, most economic signs remain reasonably healthy. [Emphasis mine.]
It’s even worse than that. According to the Nashville Business Journal, 1/29/2008, Tennessee had 45, 834 houses foreclosed — 1% of all homes in Tennessee, 1 out of every 100 homeowning families. That makes it rank 11th in the nation in foreclosures. Moreover, the foreclosure rate has accelerated in 2008. According to national sources, it’s on track to be at least 8th in the nation and perhaps as high as 6th.
Rather grim, really. I don’t understand the compulsion to sugarcoat the pervasive negative effects that the subprime crash is having on the economy as a whole.
I think it’s clear that Bill Hobbs has found John Conlee’s rose-colored glasses and they show him “only the beauty, ’cause they hide all the truth.”
The John Conlee song that springs to my mind is “Busted.”
Also saw this interesting article from The Atlantic. “The subprime crisis is just the tip of the iceberg. Fundamental changes in American life may turn today’s McMansions into tomorrow’s tenements.”
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200803/subprime
Bill Hobbs engaged in spin? I’m shocked, shocked i tell you!
I don’t think it’s spin so much as Hobbs just letting Tennesseans know that the unofficial theme song for the TNGOP is “If You’ve Got the Money, I’ve Got the Time.”
Ha, trying to think up fitting country and western songs for Hobbs makes me happy.