(NPR) Will The Housing Downturn Create New Rust Belts?

A new study released by the Mortgage Bankers Association’s Research Institute for Housing America says the most recent recession may make many regions around the country ”” especially in the South and West ”” the Rust Belts of the 21st century. The burst housing bubble may mean the economy in those places never fully recovers.

“The story’s not over,” cautions study author Jim Follain, an economist and senior fellow at the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government at the State University of New York in Albany. “But my sense is the demand drop [for residential housing] is persistent … and for some of these places, it will be a long time before they fully recover.”

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Posted in * Economics, Politics, * International News & Commentary, America/U.S.A., Economy, Housing/Real Estate Market, The Credit Freeze Crisis of Fall 2008/The Recession of 2007--