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Part three of KSL's exclusive five-part series: "Watching Utah's Money. Save more and spend less with Clark Howard." SALT LAKE CITY -- Everyone wants to know when is the economy is going to turn? Should I start investing now? Is my job finally safe again? So KSL asked the expert, and Howard is sure the American economy's going to turn the corner in 2009.
He said, "There's no way we're not going to have a recovery this year. Let me put that more positively; we are going to have a recovery this year because of the massive amount of new federal spending from the stimulus law."
Clark says one year from now we'll look back with relief. "We'll be probably at the end of the worst of the real estate bust in the country," he said. "We'll be in a phase of starting to recover. That doesn't mean that values are going to return where they were in the bubble markets; in fact in the four bubble states, next door in Arizona and Nevada, and California and Florida, we're looking at time period for recovery that could be eight to 15 years."
In healthier states like Utah, Clark figures the recovery will be well under way in one year. But he cautions America won't roar back like in recent recessions, and he expects unemployment to stay pretty high; around 10 percent this year. "But even with that, do you know that so far in this recession, 1 in 7 people have been laid off at some point, but most of those have found a new job at another point, so it is tougher to find work, but there will be jobs available, and there will not be the job losses that there have been," Howard explained.
So where are the bargains? Almost anywhere you can park money right now; either stocks or in a new house.
He said, "Buying houses at fantastic prices with great interest rates locking in money for a whole 30 years at 4-point-something, and then you take the stock market, even with the recovery we've had recently, down by about half, so especially people that are younger, wow, popping money in now - big time benefits down the road."
Tune in to Clark Howard's special reports "Watching Utah's Money" all this week at 5:40 a.m. and 7:40 a.m. on KSL Newsradio 102.7FM/1160AM.
