While the rest of the economy is charging ahead, the housing industry’s slowdown is affecting the economy as a whole and will bring down the growth numbers according to a top White House Aide.
While this is not a surprise, we have to be thankful that the rest of the economy is in an upturn and doing very well. If the housing slowdown had hit in a general recession the effects could have been much greater.
The cooling market will affect “a very significant chunk” of the economy’s growth in the third quarter, the adviser, Edward P. Lazear, chairman of the White House’s Council of Economic Advisers, said in an interview. The housing slump “is going to hit us,” he said.
The economy is expected to be among the issues considered by voters when they go to the polls Nov. 7.
Mr. Lazear would not predict how much the economy grew in the quarter from July through September. Many private economists are forecasting that the gross domestic product grew at a rate of 2.1 percent in the period, which would be the weakest performance since the last quarter of last year. At that time, the economy was still reeling from the Gulf Coast hurricanes. via the New York Times.
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