-- According to the California Employment Development Department, 1,012,600 people were working in Santa Clara County at the end of 2000, which meant a lean 1.3 percent unemployment rate. Last month, the numbers had dropped to 927, 500 and a 7.6 percent jobless rate -- the highest in the state for an urban county. The rumbling you hear in the distance are the fractures in the foundation of the banking system.
What created the stratospheric real estate prices in the Bay Area were all those high-paying tech jobs, and the people who wanted to live near them.
What happens to real estate prices when there's nothing to induce buyers to really want to live there?
What happens to banks when they have lots of mortgages in default, and they can't find new buyers for the houses willing to buy for the outstanding mortgage?
Very interesting observation. The way things are going, the bank will soon be coming TO ME and will offer to PAY ME to renegotiate my mortgage (whatever is still left of it!... another KEY fact...). I am more than glad that I do not work in a bank! And that I have (small but) highly productive land. We are close to the point where every default will become more and more costly for THE LENDER!