Real Estate

From Recessipedia

The real estate sector is one of the most largest and most important economic sectors of the U.S. economy and indeed the economies of all the world's most developed economies.^[1] According to the U.S. economic census, over 300,000 real estate firms (a number that excludes REITs and nonemployer/sole proprietorships) employed almost 2 million persons in 2002 on revenues of over $335 billion.^[2]

The bursting of the housing bubble, the subprime mortgage crisis of 2007, the financial panic of September 2008, and the recession that began in December 2007^[3] all hurt the sector. By early 2009, signs of distress had spread from the residential to the commercial part of the sector.^[4]

See also: construction.

Notes

1. ↑ Douglas Nelson, "The Role and Effect of the Real Estate Sector in the United States and World Economies," (May 13, 2007): http://www.sairec.com/sairec/uploads/dr_douglas_nelson_the_role_of_re_internationaly.pdf.
2. ↑ 2002 Economic Census, "Real Estate and Rental and Leasing," Table 1: http://www.census.gov/prod/ec02/ec0253a1us.pdf.
3. ↑ NBER, "Business Cycle Expansions and Contractions": http://www.nber.org/cycles/.
4. ↑ Ben Bernanke, "The Economic Outlook," (May 5, 2009): http://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/testimony/bernanke20090505a.htm