I brought this up because I was reading exactly how much total RE $ transactions are down in So Cal, and the whole state for that matter. Home sales were down about 35% to 40% in July. There are pockets in LA that are down 80%. Thats a pretty big contraction to one of the states largest employers which is RE. Their are alot of hungry realtors, mtg brokers, etc out there. According to the UCLA Anderson forecast it takes about 4 to 6 quarters for this contraction to be felt in the economy. Now you throw a potential oil shock on top of this which is both contractionary and inflationary. When I discovered this BP fiasco would hit the west coast the hardest my gut reaction was Wow! that could really be the straw that broke the camels back. Right now they are saying this could take months to fix. This could fade into a no big deal story or this may be the tip of the iceberg. I guess we need more info. If its a real big problem than IMO it plays directly into the busting of this RE bubble.
