Still, the stimulus package is unlikely to make an immediate impact on the Inland Empire.
In the Inland Empire the number of houses sold has halved in the past year.
In contrast, almost 800, 000 people piled into the Inland Empire between 2000 and 2006, swelling the population by a quarter.
The region is known as the Inland Empire, east of Los Angeles.
The Inland Empire's decline is among the steepest in the nation.
"When we get out of this recession one of the things that will happen is international trade will pick up again...that's a major driver of the Inland Empire, " he said.
"It's not going to solve all our problems, but it's a good shot in the arm, " said Larry Sharp, chairman of the Inland Empire Economic Partnership and president of Arrowhead Credit Union.
The bank will open seven of the 28 centers in California including locations in greater Los Angeles, San Diego, the Inland Empire, the Antelope Valley and the northern and southern San Joaquin Valley.
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For years, Riverside and San Bernardino counties, which are home to the Inland Empire, led California in population growth and home construction, as thousands of families escaping skyrocketing home prices in neighboring Los Angeles County swarmed into the region.
The search for cheap housing has pushed people away from the Pacific and into places like the "Inland Empire, " which is an hour or two drive through smog-filled traffic jams from Los Angeles.
These two slightly dusty inland towns are notable for their Turkish-speaking minorities, holdovers from the Ottoman Empire, who still purvey succulent Eastern sweets such as lokum and baklava.
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Among more populous areas, California's Inland Empire (an area that includes Riverside and San Bernardino Counties) saw the most improvement, with congestion there falling by 60% due to the economic slowdown and real estate collapse.
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