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+--- Thread: How does your local economy feel? (/showthread.php?tid=2693)
RE: How does your local economy feel? - Hotzcatz - 09-20-2008
Ouch, StillHope, hopefully that was just a small percentage of the total? The markets went up again by Friday, didn't they?
I don't have the benefit of an educated financial sense so I've been studying up on it instead. For the past several years I've been watching the economy and watching macroeconomics. This has been building up for quite some time although I didn't expect it so soon. Generally this sort of thing happens AFTER the elections, never before them.
For our personal economy, we went into panic mode almost two years ago and paid down all debts otherwise we would have been in dire straights right now. We thought about refinancing to get $$$ for "stuff" like everyone else seemed to be doing and decided not to. We've been doing everything possible to cut our monthly overhead and we started two years ago. Starting then we have been able to lower our costs to cover the rising expenses and stay within budget. I have no idea how most folks are managing.
RE: How does your local economy feel? - StillHope - 09-20-2008
quote:My financial adviser told me to invest in gold.Converted the rest to the golden P&P on my house.
Originally posted by Hotzcatz
Ouch, StillHope, hopefully that was just a small percentage of the total? The markets went up again by Friday, didn't they?
.......................
RE: How does your local economy feel? - lostboystoy - 09-20-2008
Hey Dick Wilson, feel sorry for you. I lived in SaltLake for ten years before moving to Idaho, to prepare for moving to Hawaii. I figured if I could go from 3 million people, to 3000 and fit in and make a living. then I could do it in Hawaii. Salmon Idaho is very isolated, 150 miles to the nearest walmart or McDonalds.
I still have my family down around pleasant grove. I got out the year of the Olympics. And no I am not L.D.S. I could never move back to a city, its just not for me. it was great in my twenties when I wanted to party. Now I just want to live life to the fullest.
Ive watched a 20% decrease in business last year and a 30 % drop this year, people are going longer between haircuts and longer between hair colors.
We live in the poorest county of the state and people have to choose food, gas, and propane or wood for heat. That everyone's priority here. all the small business here are on the verge of going under, most are surviving on credit cards, and since the banks are failing I think your going to see a much faster increase of people running out of money. That's why they cant even say we are in a recession. But did find one media person say ,what Ive been saying for awhile we are beyond recession and headed into a depression and I have a feeling it will be worse than the 1930's.
And StillHope God I hope that was a joke. millions. I'm sorry but if I had millions, it would be buried, in a secret location. forget the interest and live frugal, and you would be ok for life.
setting my soul free....
RE: How does your local economy feel? - DickWilson - 09-20-2008
Hey, Lostboystoy, I feel sorry for me. I'm a country boy born and raised. Only here for my job and can't wait to get the hell out. DO NOT fit in here. Not LDS, and practice all the vices that my neighbors delight in pointing out will send me to hell, when they talk to us at all. Jobs for sure over by Mar. Sell house move to Puna, like minded people, sense of community, self suficiency. AM SO READY to MOVE[
]dick wilson
RE: How does your local economy feel? - Andy - 09-21-2008
Hi Folks,
I read Dick's last post and could really relate. I am stuck in Vista California, trying to sell my home....no luck at all AND I am surrounded by religeous nutbags. I don't speak with very many of my neighbors due to political and other points of view....basically they are all either LDS or 7th Day Adventist wackjobs and want me in hell.
The economy here is in the toilet! I am just lucky to be employed and this point and try to be grateful for that daily. I work in Horticulture and it seems that between the economy and the drought here, this is an industry on its last legs.
I cannot wait to get to Puna....live and let live attitude and RAIN!
RE: How does your local economy feel? - StillHope - 09-21-2008
Andy,are you near Morning Star Ranch?
I don't know much about them,but used to buy their organic stuff at the Farmers market in Ocean Beach.
After your post I found this article :
http://directory.ic.org/20303/Twelve_Tribes_Community_at_the_Morning_Star_Ranch
RE: How does your local economy feel? - Kelena - 09-21-2008
San Diego County has been generally immune to ups and downs in the economy. Everyone (except me, StillHope and Andy) wants to live here. Not anymore. San Diego County unemployment is highest it has been since 1993. It will get higher soon because construction activity has completely ceased. Rumors of layoffs in all sectors are rampant. We are now at something like 6%.
Housing -- don't ask. It is actually very hard to estimate where we are because it is a moving target. I estimate that housing values in my zip code are down about 40% from the peak. My personal guess is that they will fall over the next few months to 1998 values.....or below. My plan to leave in 2009 may have to be revised to 2020. My retirement account has taken a pretty bad hit after years of steady growth. They say don't move things around, but it is hard to watch it erode so quickly without hyperventilating.
Meanwhile, in New Orleans, things don't seem to be too much different yet oddly. Housing prices have not fallen that much. I don't really know why. I don't want to say it is a boomtown, but there is a lot of activity. Some people are seeing opportunity there, for whatever reason. I have been able to rent my tiny condo in the French Quarter very quickly to the many young professionals that have gravitated to town. That said, New Orleans thrives on tourism and I expect that will drop off pretty quickly.
My personal projection is that we are entering Great Depression The Sequel. Congress is now presesented with two choices: 1) Bail out the banks and thereby bankrupt the government or 2) Not bail out the banks and thereby destroy the economy (in the short run). I actually think this is a false choice, as the economy has already been destroyed and the bail out will not help. Conservatives, of course, want to bankrupt the Government so it will not operate anymore, and will have no power to obstruct the so-called "Free Market". But the free market, like freedom itself, isn't free: The cost is one trillion dollars in taxpayer dollars. That will truly mean the end of Government.
The bailout will be a temporary fixed designed to obfuscate how bad things really are for a period of about a couple of months.
My prediction for Hawaii is that it will become vastly more isolated. Few carriers can afford to fly there at current fares. They will have to raise them. In a way, this is a positive result. An economy based on inexpensive transportation cannot be sustained. We will have to think in new ways. However, the timing of all of this is not good for those of us who were poised to make The Great Escape.
RE: How does your local economy feel? - aikahimomma - 09-21-2008
Glen..you so akamai
RE: How does your local economy feel? - StillHope - 09-21-2008
Glen,your next book (saga) is going to be "The Great Escape"?
I am counting on the autograph (and 2 paw prints).
RE: How does your local economy feel? - JWFITZ - 09-21-2008
In the LOCAL economy I find a very interesting phenomenon.
There are those who could see the writing on the wall and knew all this was coming. They got out before the bubble burst, moved here 2 years ago, have very little debt if any, and in general embrace progressive values. These people even if of relatively modest means are in pretty good shape, as they're more or less immune to what's going on currently by design. They keep a low profile.
There are those who didn't pay any attention at all, saved no money, bought big stupid trucks with bigger stupider wheels, never mind the roof on the house is about to rust off, and these people are in real big trouble.
Of course this is the case in any economic down turn, but I think it's rare to see it this stratified.
I still see a boom in the short term here in Hawaii. The first wave of financial and ecological refugees like myself have already moved here and quietly entrenched. Hawaii is still cheap compared to the mainland, as is likely to remain so. While values on the mainland will fall and stay low, the relative pricing between properties there and here for the next few years will likely remain favorable for those who want to move. For those who MUST move, because their retirement is contingent on getting the equity out of the house, few options are available. Better get out sooner than later.
A lesson I remember from the years in my youth of hunting chuckar in Hell's Canyon and the Idaho deserts. The first bird that flies from cover startles you and gets away. The next two don't.