Because of the changing fronts on the economic and political horizon, and the resulting informational confusion, we're coming to the end of what has been one of the roughest and most frustrating years in Marin real estate. The overall economic outlook is one of a slow recovery from a deep recession. However, the economy faces some serious headwinds and there are several factors that will affect what that recovery might look like. Unemployment is a big one, and that will affect everyone, from the graduate who can't find a job and has to stay at home, to the breadwinner that has lost his job from downsizing. We expect the Fed to pump more money into the economy with a second round of quantitative easing (QE2), but continuing high unemployment could mitigate…
