2008 Financial Statistics

2008 Financial Statistics – Very Sobering!

It may take awhile for the East Bay consumers to fully grasp the impact of what happened in 2008 regarding the financial highs and lows!

With Treasuary Secretary, Hank Paulson already distributing over half of the $700 billion bailout package, it has been interesting and sobering to get beyond the hipe and review the realities of what happened to our ecomony in 2008 and how it will impact 2009.  Here are some of the 2008 stats that I have been gathering.

$61,871 – Amount owed by each U.S. tax payer to cover the 2008 “bailouts”.

$8.6 Trillion – Amount of taxpayer money the U.S. government has pledged to prop up our finanical institutions as of December 2008.

$30 Trillion – Approximate amount of stock value wiped out from stocks worldwide.

$613 Billion – Lehman Brothers Holdings liabilities when it filed for bankruptcy – largest in U.S. history.

$50 Billion – Amount invested with Bernard Madoff that has now been lost in his Ponzi scheme.

400 – The number of non-profit organizations that had invested with Madoff that have been affected by the loss of all their funds.

$150 Billion – Amount pledged to bailout American International Group, Inc. – AIG (Remember, their name is on the Manchester United jersey as part of an advertising campaign that cost them about $100 million. Yikes!)

$440,000 – The resort costs for the AIG salespeople retreat AFTER the September Federal bailout.

2.7 Million – Number of unemployed added since December 2007. ( We are close to 7% unemployment today, with an expected increase to possibly 10% by the end of 2009.)

11.7 million – Households that owe more on their mortgages than they are worth.

There is no getting around it, these are sobering stats.  And, it is important for us to all remember that real estate is still a local experience – not a National one.  Fortunately, the East Bay is full of real estate opportunities in 2009 – whether for first time home buyers, people that need to get a larger home, and even investors.  Together, we will figure out ways to make it through these tough times!  I am very excited about the prospects of East Bay real estate markets in 2009!