Real Estate Investor Up Close

The Federal Reserve released its quarterly summary of economic projections last week, reducing its forecast of GDP and raising its forecast of the unemployment rate in 2011 and 2012. In doing so, the Fed acknowledged what many private economists have been saying for several months – that the pace of the recovery has slowed this year. The Fed's previous GDP forecast range of 3.1 to 3.3 percent for 2011 was reduced to a range of 2.7 to 2.9 percent, and the previous unemployment range of 8.4 to 8.7 percent for the fourth quarter of 2011 was raised to a range of 8.6 to 8.9 percent. Forecasts for 2012 were downgraded as well. While acknowledging the recent spike in inflation, the Fed believes that inflation will remain at or below its target range of 1.5 to 2.0 percent through at least 2013. Fed Chairman Bernanke said in his press conference last week that temporary factors such as high oil prices and supply chain disruptions related to the disasters in Japan are depressing output, but