-By Peter Francese

New Hampshire REALTORS® have every reason to be extremely proud that they not only survived 2009, but in fact sold more homes than in 2008. That was a huge achievement considering the near-record depth of the Great Recession.

During 2009, the bad news just kept coming. New Hampshire’s unemployment rate peaked at 7.2 percent in September – the highest it had been in almost 17 years. There were over 3,400 home foreclosures in 2009, almost as many as the nearly 3,600 in 2008. As if that were not enough, total statewide employment fell by over 15,000 jobs between November 2008 and November 2009.

But that was so last year. What about 2010? Well, the consensus of most economists is that the recovery from this extraordinary recession will get underway this year, although they also predict that the recovery will be slow and that it may take two years for our state to get back to some semblance of normal, whatever that is.

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