Anirban Basu, CEO of the Sage Policy Group is an Economist with a sense of humor. At his annual speaking engagements on the Eastern Shore, he managed to keep audiences laughing while delivering sound economic analysis. Alas, the slowing of Maryland’s red-hot economy is no laughing matter. Basu attributes this to the 35-day federal shutdown and the softness of the owner-occupied housing market. Surprisingly, Talbot County homeowners are an outlier on this trend, registering an eye-popping 31 percent increase in prices in May on a year-ago basis.
