Follow up on the recession and my hometown
 

About two years ago I did a thread about how the recession has hit my home town of Lincoln, California. We had a number of projects being build which had just shut down, lots of local businesses going out of business, and exactly half of the houses on my block were vacant (ten out of twenty houses).

Here's my hometown... Main Street USA.

http://www.rochardsbunnyranch.com/rock/lincoln2_4.jpg

Since then a lot has changed.

All of the houses on my street are occupied, although two of them are for sale. One is because they bought a bigger house on the other side of town, and the other is because of a divorce.

I'll throw up a bunch of other photos in other posts here shortly...

At one point we had a Sonic drive in restaurant being build. They put down the concrete pad, the plumbing etc, and started on the walls... And then just stopped. Then they just tore it all down. Now there is just a fence around the lot.

No one seems to know the current status of this property.

http://www.rochardsbunnyranch.com/rock/lincoln2_1.jpg

The construction you see in the background is part of the "Lincoln Freeway Bypass". We have a two way freeway that pours directly into what we call "Main Street". The picture above in the first post is really "Highway 65". They are building a 17 mile bypass so it will go around our city. This is being done with County, State, and Federal funds.

This was the local Wendys... It shut down in 2010 and has been empty ever since.

http://www.rochardsbunnyranch.com/rock/lincoln2_2.jpg

This shopping center is rather large really, and also lost a Marie Callender's and a Coldstone Creamery, although Coldstone most likely shut down because of mis-management.

This was the "Rainbow Market", Taco Bell, and a Pizza place. Rainbow Market was a cross between a Five and Dime and a small grocery store; It had been there for forty years. It closed, and a short time later the Taco Bell and the Pizza place shut down also.

Now.... It's been purchased by Wal Mart, which is putting what we believe is a "mini grocery store".

http://www.rochardsbunnyranch.com/rock/lincoln2_3.jpg

Looks like not much has improved sadly

Interesting posts, thanks.

.

Rochard I guess either you're once again blocking m.gfy.com, or you're redirecting all traffic that might be on a mobile device to single hardcoded URL. Hopefully the former because the latter would be throwing away a lot of premium traffic - smartphone users are people willing to spend more than they have to.

Next up is the condo complexes which were being build when the recession hit.

The first one only had two buildings up and just folded, having only sold one unit. They had the concrete pads laid for further construction but nothing else has happened. They entire lot was up for sale for $1mil.

The second complex had the concrete pads laid out and roads built, and stopped. About three months ago they started building quickly. The house on the left is brand new, and you see two more under construction. These are multi family houses, three or four houses basically bashed together.

http://www.rochardsbunnyranch.com/rock/lincoln2_5.jpg

I took both of these pictures from the same spot, one face left, and the second photo facing right. They are prepping to build more. On the other side of the complex they are also building more too.

http://www.rochardsbunnyranch.com/rock/lincoln2_6.jpg

I disagree.

The housing seems to have corrected itself. Keep in mind my home town here was growing quickly, and at one point we were the fastest growing city in the US. Our housing market got hit hard. Now all of the houses are occupied; There is only one vacant house in my area on a side street.

The Wendy's is gone (damn!), but the Marie Calendars that shut down has become (yet another) Mexican restaurant. We also lost a Chilli's, but that was just opened as a sushi place. But we also picked up a few new things, new construction, including some kind of new "organic" grocery store chain and a Red Robin. In downtown (which in reality is really a really small "downtown") they recently re-opened Beerman's Resturant, which is huge - Restaurant, bar, nightclub, comedy shop.

The two new business plazas that opened up just before the recession are barely at half capacity, but they are getting busier.

As for the city, we just passed a budget that is two thirds what it was three years ago. We have laid off police officers and firemen, closed down entire fire stations, and even closed down the smaller original library.

I think over all things are getting better. Businesses have closed, new ones have opened, the houses are mostly occupied, and new construction has started again.

These pictures are hosted on one of my blogs, which is redirected to a Top Bucks mobile site.

You mean in the middle of a global recession, that places are closing?

FUCKING NO WAY, BRA?!?!?!!!111

Thanks for the info.

I am seeing some similar stuff where I live. A few years ago at least half the houses on my street were either empty or for sale and today there is only one for sale. There were also several businesses that went under (two of them were Hollywood Video and Blockbuster Video which likely had less to do with the recession and more to do with changing times) and now new businesses are moving into those buildings.

One thing for sure, property values are down a lot. There is a Realtor's office at the end of the street. They always have a sign up with their current "hot" deal. A few years ago a 4 bedroom on a big lot would have been $300K. Today they have a 4 bedroom with 2 acres of land and a barn for $225K

Thank you for the information. It's great to see the pictures and your comments.

We too had a Blockbuster Video that went out of business. However, I wonder if that was because of the recession, or if it's really because there are just more ways to "rent" or otherwise download video content. Amazon has instant streaming, and there's also Hulu.

Property values here have also plummeted. My house is worth half of what I paid for it.

Here's a picture that explains it for you

http://dailyinfographic.com/wp-conte...ockbuster.jpeg

Laugh all you want. Like I said, housing is down by about fifty percent.

As for unemployment, I never gave it much thought really. We don't have a huge economic base; We are a sleepy suburb. We don't have our own mall or any large businesses. On top of this, we have a huge retirement community here - Sun City - and nearly one third of our city population lives there.

I'm not living in denial at all. I'm just looking around me and telling you what I see. The value of houses is down by half, but occupancy has risen from fifty percent to one hundred percent. Building has started again. My friends and neighbors are no longer loosing their houses.

Oh I'm sure. They failed to see the future. People are downloading stuff from home now - No need to go the store at all.

It's just like our music industry. They tried to fight digital music without understanding the benefits. They blew it and things will never be the same for them.

What's the situation regarding small shops?

Here a lot of places are losing the small family run businesses that have been going since forever because every town seems to end up with a large retail park just outside that take all the business away.

All of the small long term local mom and pop stores seems to be doing well. The big exception was the Rainbow Market, which had been family owned and operated for decades, along with the pizza joint in the same plaza. I can't think of any family owned businesses along Main street that have closed down.

A new family owned business opened up, an ice cream shop. It's more of a yogurt thing I guess. But during the summer months it's packed.

I know that area Rochard. I lived in Reno for 12 yrs. Sounds like a great time to buy in your area! And yes it looks like things are improving.

Things are getting better, although our two new shopping plazas are slow to fill up.

It's a great time to buy here.

How much residents are currently in city?

Nice thread, I love stuff like this.

That's called "Market Correction".

Homes are finally selling for what they are actually worth instead of infalted prices caused
by buyer's panic that the price is going higher and higher and they need to get in now.


It's a cycle :

1. The Market is good
2. Availble homes shrink
3. Price gouging starts
4. Builders see oppotunity to build against price gouging
5. Over building occurs, either because of poor enconomy or too many units bulit
6. Prices drop because of #5
7. People now dump homes because the value is less than the mortgage(they were gouged)
8. Prices drop even lower
9. People start buying again
10. The market is good
.
.
.
.
.

Call it what you want, but it sucks knowing your house lost $300k in value in two years.

Interesting post +1