Job creation key to boosting real estate

As new home starts are down 46 percent from a year ago, out-of-work construction workers now constitute a large portion of the unemployed, said Chris Jansing, a MSNBC and NBC correspondent. But, many of those construction workers do not even show up in the already high national unemployment rate, which still has not peaked. For those people and others who are stuck with underwater mortgages, swift job creation is essential for a recovery in the housing market and overall economy, Amir Korangy, publisher of The Real Deal, told MSNBC this morning. “Jobs are the fuel of this economy and the only way to [fuel it] is to help small businesses and entrepreneurs by giving them tax breaks and incentives to hire people,” he said. Also, in order to see positive results within a year, jobs need to be created now because we have not yet seen a peak in unemployment. The unemployment rate “is something we have to fix now, because by 2010, it will be too late,” he said.