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A Placid North Dakota Asks, What Recession?

December 6, 2008 /

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Bear Paw Development Corporation is a private non-profit organization created for the purpose of administering programs to help improve regional economic conditions in Hill, Blaine, Liberty, Chouteau and Phillips Counties and the Fort Belknap and Rocky Boy's Indian Reservations.

As the rest of the nation sinks into a 12th grim month of recession, this state http://www.nd.gov/ , at least up until now, has been quietly reveling in a picture so different that it might well be on another planet.

A slow afternoon at the Fargo branch of Job Service North Dakota, where the state employees outnumbered the job seekers.

The number of new cars sold statewide was 27 percent higher this year than last, state records through November showed. North Dakota’s foreclosure rate was minuscule, among the lowest in the country. Many homes have still been gaining modestly in value, and, here in Fargo, construction workers can be found on any given day hammering away on a new downtown condominium complex, complete with a $540,000 penthouse (still unsold, but with a steady stream of lookers).

By MONICA DAVEY

Full Story: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/06/us/06dakota.html?_r=1&hp