Quote of the Day
We are just at the VERY beginning of the scaling back process. With the country losing jobs like crazy right now, people who want to scale back might not even be able to because they are just trying to cling to what they have right now. Think about all those MILLIONS of people who moved…
We are just at the VERY beginning of the scaling back process. With the country losing jobs like crazy right now, people who want to scale back might not even be able to because they are just trying to cling to what they have right now. Think about all those MILLIONS of people who moved to the Sun Belt over the last decade and bought those energy sucking houses in the deserts of Phoenix, Las Vegas, etc. Many of them are trapped. Their houses are worth half, their electricity costs are through the roof and they now find themselves in cities which were born of the notion that bigger is better. We don’t hear about the shift as much yet, because those people aren’t yet packing up in any serious numbers (my few friends aside) because they are just trying to figure out what comes next. I guarantee you though, that a lot of people feel trapped right now in a lifestyle which they now realize is not sustainable for the long run. It won’t be until the economy turns around that many of these same people will be able to do anything about it though. This is not a blip, I don’t think. This is an earth shattering tectonic plate shift that will reshape the way people view their lives all over the world. I think so anyway. I also think that it’s necessary, and will ultimately be a great thing for the human race.
— by 11217 in Brooklyn Rental Market More Stable Than Manhattan
I guess when i travel I don’t go to the poorest parts of town. My upstate visits are usually to Cooperstown and Saratoga. No, not a lot of abject poverty there.
11217, you sound a little depressed. The country is not disintegrating and the world is not imploding (though keep an eye on Gaza). You should look at the glass as 90% full rather than 10% empty.
But if there’s another Mideast War, then all bets are off.
My electricity bills in brooklyn in summer are about $300 to 450 a month. I have central air. Do you live in NY wothout a.c.? Plus I have the heating bills in winter, plus it costs me another 280 a month to park, and my auto insurance is like five times what I would pay somwhere predominantly middle-class like Phoenix and NY State taxes are a scandal. I think you need to get out more.
Honda doesn’t make Prius. Toyota does.
And GM and Ford are on the verge of bankruptcy. GM closer to it than the latter.
Toyota saw its profits decline for the first time in 10 years, I believe.
I think that’s a tectonic shift in some respect. That the automobile giants of Detroit are on the verge of collapse without help from the U.S. government? Sure.
My post wasn’t about the housing bubble only. The housing bubble collapse is just the thing that has triggered the process of realizing how we’ve been living for the past few decades. As I said in my post, this is just the very beginning.
As someone who has lived in Phoenix and been to Las Vegas 20 times, I can tell you firsthand that the poverty that exists in some parts of those areas are more similar to that experienced in 3rd world countries. It makes the Bronx look like Ann Arbor. Alabama, West Virginia, upstate, Detroit, parts of Baltimore, Cleveland and Philadelphia…all good examples of poverty that are truly staggering.
Average home cooling bills for a 3000sf home in Phoenix are 400-600 a month from April – October. Not sure about Las Vegas, but I know they are not “cheap.”
you know what’s potentially apocalytic? What is happening now in Gaza. That is very scary, especially as the US is in the very midst of a transfer of power. Hypothetically, say Egypt decides to attack Tel Aviv, what happens then?
Now that would be something to worry about. Not the cost of electricity or the drying up of the secondary credit markets.
GM and Ford reported that they are seeing an uptick in truck sales and Honda is experiencing a pileup in Prius inventory.
The govt. is drafting provisions to adjust mortgages down to current values (i.e. cramdowns), making the taxpayers and the banks eat the difference.
Real tectonic shifts.
Can I be Clint Eastwood?
I loved your prior posting, sam.
this website reminds me of the golden globes.
the same 20 people and alot of patting on the back.
It is a very nice quote–well-written, interesting, thought-provoking–but I couldn’t disagree more. Do you really think that people in the sun belt think that the economic collapse has anything at all to do with the fact that their lifestyle in “unsustainable”? No, they think that they were caught in an economic collapse, from which they will eventually rebound. You are making connections–which are largely unfouned and based on nothing more than your personal beliefs–that the people in question certainly are not making.
As for a tetonic shift, I think a few people out there are “seeing the light” and making life changes. I know some people who lost their jobs recently who are leaving the city and moving upstate to grow their own veggies and live what they see as more sustainable lives without the glitz and glam and excess of city living. But I think that that is an insignificant handful of folks.
Yes, memories are short. People who tried to call the bubble was told that they just didn’t understand things — too old. Everything was different… until it wasn’t.