Of Builders and Baristas

While the weekly poll is showing that most of you think I should go work at Starbucks to offset my rising gas costs, I'm thinking out of work East Tennessee builders might have already filled all the vacant positions. Via Property Scope:

The Knoxville research firm [The Market Edge] recently issued its 1Q numbers for residential building permits, and the comparison with the first quarter of 2007 is grim:

Knox County -- down 58 percent
Loudon County -- down 21 percent
Anderson County -- down 63 percent
Blount County -- down 48 percent
Sevier County -- down 40 percent.

Don't eat all the biscotti before I get there, boys.