re: How bad was the 2008 recession in Louisiana?

I was consistently employed through that entire stretch, but, the Katrina gold rush was probably responsible for that.

My dad had a design-build firm in Baton Rouge in the 80’s. He held on as long as he could but we lost everything and moved out west. I was still a kid.

Got burned bad again in the 2008 crash. Lost job and everything else.

The condo next to the one I eventually lived in sold for $420,000 in 2007. By 2010, similar places were selling for $90,000. Now one will run you $600,000 or more.

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Haynesville Shale was kicking.

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This was big in north La for keeping the economy moving. The construction industry was clicking on all cylinders in Bossier Parish and Caddo Parish. I wired the two biggest houses of my career during that time period, one around 13k sq ft and the other just over 14k. New, at the time, housing developments didn't slow down.

My wages and benefits also had nice increases during that time.

Im in the A/E/C industry and was living in Florida at the time. They way development was running crazy, cities building infrastructure and intersections in BFE b/c a developer had filed development permits for 2,000 homes five yrs out...I thought all that was a telltale sign of something bad on the horizon. I hated living there and was ready to get the hell out anyway. Told my wife that I cant put my finger on it, but we need to sell our shite and move to Nola ASAP. Summer of 2007 we moved, sold our house in the market frenzy.

Then six months later the house of cards with mortgage backed securities started to crumble....started in Las Vegas and Florida, then spread to rest of country. I'm sitting in Nola with more recovery work than we could handle and the resume's started piling up on the boss's desk coming from all over the country. Insurance money, private equity and development was flowing and it was the wild west! Word was out that Nola was the only place left still hiring, developing, and building. I had former classmates - that were so smug b/c they moved to NYC, Chicago, DC, etc after college - are now flat on their asses calling me to ask who was hiring in Nola b/c they couldnt find work.

I don't know about other industries, but if you were in construction related or adjacent fields, the work was there in the Katrina zones. The joke around the office was, "LOL what recession !?!?" Also helped that Katrina kickstarted some major moves in the healthcare markets. My biggest client started buying out hospital facilities from the corporate providers that left town. I spent 10 years building new or renovating old medical facilities and never slowed down until I changed companies and moved to BR.

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Personally, things are far worse now than they were during the crash of ‘08.

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Due to the reasons listed itt, there really wasn’t a crash per se in Louisiana in 08, so what you are saying may be true for many people.

I was 30 with a wife, 2 kids and a mortgage. I worked in the financial industry and it sucked. About 25% of our office got laid off. Thankfully, I survived the cuts.

At times it felt like we were watching a total meltdown of the global financial system. The inflation the past 5-6 years sucks too, and I feel for younger people who are just starting out in life in this. Unfortunately we are going to keep printing money.