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Gerry Dick from Inside Indiana Business controbuted to this story.

ELKHART, Ind.–Indiana was hit hard by the housing and market crisis of 2008, which was exactly ten years ago. But, since then the state has recovered to some of the lowest unemployment in its history. 

“It’s really not been an even recovery,” said Gerry Dick, with Inside Indiana Business. “If you look at Indianapolis, Ft. Wayne, Evansville, the metro areas have enjoyed the recovery. But, in rural areas around the state, times are still difficult.”

Dick pointed out that unemployment in Elkhart was the highest in the country after the market drop, at 20 percent. The reason is because manufacturing took a hit n the crisis, and Elkhart depends on that for its economy.

Inside Indiana Business TV, with Greg Cooper

“In 2009, it’s estimated that one in 62 homes in Indiana was in some type of foreclosure. Today that number is one in about 4,700. So, obviously things have improved,” said Dick.

Though that improvement likely reached a peak earlier this year, it may have dropped off slightly, said Greg Cooper, a realtor with Berkshire Hathaway Home Services, who appeared on Inside Indiana Business TV. 

“There were two years, a year and a half perhaps, where almost every night when I went into a home to list for sale, someone who had lost their job, somebody was gonna have to move, where somebody didn’t cry,” said Cooper. “A number of big homebuilders disappeared. The number one homebuilder in the state of Indiana disappeared.”

Cooper said building dropped by 60 percent between 2007 and 2009.

But, he said communities learned to reinvent themselves. He said they learned they needed to build for specific groups of people, not just building and investing in sprawling housing developments.

“We’re redeveloping central cores, walkability, new urbanism, all these terms that have become so important to downsizers and millenials, big parts of the housing market,” he said.

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