_Getting Graphic is a semi-sort-of-irregular collection of our favorite BIG real estate-related chart(s)._

Source: Washington Post
[Click here for full graphic](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/graphic/2006/04/05/GR2006040500315.html)

Here’s a great article by Neil Irwin on the concern that the housing market slow down could have much more of a far-reaching effecton the economy than it has in prior slowdowns, despite some signs that the economy is holding its own at the moment.

[Is Reliance on Real Estate a Crack in the Foundation? [Washington Post]](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/04/AR2006040401629.html)

Here’s a [transcript of Irwin’s online discussion](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2006/03/31/DI2006033101410.html)

>The U.S. economy is more dependent on housing than it has been in a half-century, as the sector fuels consumer spending and has accounted for nearly three-quarters of the nation’s job growth in the past five years.

_What makes the real estate boom of the past decade unusual is that its effects have reverberated far beyond closely related sectors such as construction, driving sales in places as varied as furniture stores and motorcycle showrooms, especially in the Washington area and others where home prices have soared particularly rapidly._


One Comment

  1. pcampbell April 8, 2006 at 3:01 pm

    The country has been “putting all its eggs in too few baskets” for a several decades. No insult intended to anyone but the 2nd factor is so basic. To borrow and modify a popular saying “It’s the debt, stupid”.

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