The reason you aren't seeing the flood of foreclosures is the banks don't want to write down the loses so they are floating the loans and not letting them out into the market. By not doing so they lessen the damage on the other properties values they hold mortgages on. Locally? My cousin is sitting on a 550k mortgage note on a house now worth $330k (last offer) Of my closest friends all of which have good fulltime jobs two out of three just had to renegotiate their loans or both would have been foreclosed on. The others roommate is moving out (leaving the country) because he can't find work and my friend is concerned he won't be able to keep up with his notes. Another friend who is out of work is riding around on my motorcycle right now because his car broke down and he has no money. My mom has three rental properties and all three renters are behind on their rent and probably should be evicted. I went to the corner market the other day and the owner was trying to sell me his truck because he can't afford the car payment anymore. I could go on and on.
As far as people shopping I just don't see it. The malls are like ghost towns around here. In fact they just turned on into a doctors office complex and trying to figure out what to do with another. As far as restaurants and bars. Those ar eplace where people get out of the house and vent their frustrations. The bars especially are booming during bust economies.
Ask these people what they think.
Longer lines at New York food banks
http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2...442454900.html