In case anyone forgot the impact that the housing crisis had on our economy, the first GIF below tells you everything you need to know. It shows the unemployment rate by state during the last five and a half years. The darker the shade, the worse the unemployment rate was.
In 2009, as the recovery was still in its infancy, seemingly half of the country is in the darker shade, meaning unemployment was approaching or exceeding 18%.
In the second GIF, unemployment rates for the last 40 years are displayed. You can see exactly when the economy started to take a turn for the worse. Watch how the darker colors begin take over the map right around 2008 when the housing bubble burst.
There’s the real impact of the housing crisis. Money simply disappeared. People lost their jobs and their homes. The entire crisis fed upon itself. And it nearly consumed our entire economy whole.
The GIFs comes to us courtesy of Movoto, who pulled together the monthly unemployment rates for each state over the last 40 years. The numbers came from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and were seasonally adjusted.
It's interesting to see the progression of unemployment rates over the last 40 years in the second GIF. During the years of Ronald Reagan's presidency, the county had some of the worst unemployment figures of the last 40 years. But it also had some of the best.
Study by Movoto.
On the positive side, in the last few years, the nationwide unemployment rate has dropped from 9.6% in 2010 to 6.3% in April 2014. While there still are some states with unemployment rates around 10%, there are no states above 18%. The evidence of the recovery is right there in black and white. Or blueish gray and blue, as it were.
The trend of unemployment is headed in a positive direction, as evidenced by the lighter shades of 2014. So maybe things really are getting better.
Now, we just have to wait and see if people are willing to spend their money on housing again. But the important questions are, will they do it wisely? And will banks help or hurt?
You know what they say about history, right? Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. We only need to look to our history to plot our future.
Study by Movoto.
