How the recession has effected my hometown (photo journalism)

[Rochard]

Everyone is bitching about so many programs crashing down and blaming everything on tubes and free porn while ignore the most obvious facts - That we are in a recession and so few have money to spend on porn. No one is buying porn while worrying about making their next house payment or if they'll have a job in the morning.

I live in Lincoln, California, just north of Sacramento. Ten years ago it was a small sleepy town off of a freeway off of a much larger freeway. Lincoln had a population of eleven thousand people. Once someone figured out there was a small cute town with a one hundred year old main street off of a freeway of the main freeway, they decided to build houses here. From 2000 to 2006 the town had a 238% increase in population, including myself when I moved back to California to work for ICS. The city loved the rapid growth; In 2006 we were named the All-America City and had big celebration. The developers had to build new fire stations, schools, parks, upgrades to most of the roads, and so forth. Bigger businesses moved in, Target, and so forth. All of the houses had new loans on them, and most of those new loans defaulted.

On my street three are exactly twenty houses. About a year ago we counted all of the empty once, and ten of them were empty with five more having for sale signs on them. During my morning run I took my camera and took some pictures. I'll follow up over the next few days of the town itself, and show you how sad it really is.

Here's my street....

This is the house across the street from me. It's now been vacant for two years or so. Currently the bank has had workers in it re-painting and fixing the holes in the walls. The back of the house, which you can see from the main street, has a gutter that's falling off. Note the dead lawn.

[Rochard]

Other empty houses:





The car parked here belongs to another house. It's common for people to park in the driveways of empty houses here. We can't park on the street over night, and it sort of makes the house look occupied with a car in front of it.

Note the dead lawn here:

[CaptainHowdy]

How sad, Looks like Bosnia...

[Agent 488]

you have tubes on your street? or cross sells?

[Sly]

What were these houses bought for and what are they listed for currently?

[Rochard]

I forgot to mention that my house and four other houses on my street were model homes for the development. This is one of the models - It cracks me up because it's so overgrown that you cant' even walk up the sidewalk.



Later today I'll take a drive and take some pictures of all of the restaurants that have closed, old and new shopping centers that are now empty, and also a few complexes of condos that build half of their units and then went out of business.

I should also mention that out of twenty houses on my street, eight are now empty, and five more have for sale signs out.

[fatfoo]

Recession does not bother a person with much retained earnings.
Of course, that is a difficult financial position to get to.

[Rochard]

Originally Posted by Sly

What were these houses bought for and what are they listed for currently?

Most of the houses on my street were sold in the $500k range. My new neighbor, a nice Cuban family, recently paid $220k for their house - which is less than half of what I paid for my house. I bought in 2006 at the height of the housing market.

[Agent 488]

it was busy at the olive garden so there is no recession.

[Mr Happy]

This is just the begining my friends. Just wait until you see what they do with the people that lost their homes.

[woj]

220k looks like a steal for those houses, around here even in this economy you would need to spend 300-400k for houses like that...

[TheDoc]

Originally Posted by Mr Happy

This is just the begining my friends. Just wait until you see what they do with the people that lost their homes.

Move back into rentals and apartments, back home basically?

[Martin]

The fall of America.

[TheDoc]

Crazy how some areas are hit so hard and others are hardly hit at all, if at all.

I think we over built, simply built more freakin houses than people are able to buy. Add in a drop of the eco/job market, and you get houses people can't afford anymore, and the cycle gets worse.

But really it means nothing... so we over built, some areas got hit harder than others - if anything it helped correct the market.

[Loch]

Originally Posted by Rochard

I forgot to mention that my house and four other houses on my street were model homes for the development. This is one of the models - It cracks me up because it's so overgrown that you cant' even walk up the sidewalk.



Later today I'll take a drive and take some pictures of all of the restaurants that have closed, old and new shopping centers that are now empty, and also a few complexes of condos that build half of their units and then went out of business.

I should also mention that out of twenty houses on my street, eight are now empty, and five more have for sale signs out.

That house would be an EASY 2 million in my arrea, crazy stuff

[Rochard]

Originally Posted by TheDoc

Crazy how some areas are hit so hard and others are hardly hit at all, if at all.

I think we over built, simply built more freakin houses than people are able to buy. Add in a drop of the eco/job market, and you get houses people can't afford anymore, and the cycle gets worse.

But really it means nothing... so we over built, some areas got hit harder than others - if anything it helped correct the market.

With my hometown I don't think it was so much that we overbuilt, but instead that everything was new - all new loans, all crappy loans. When everything went down hill, first to go was the crappy loans... Which was most of the loans in my new community here.

[Nikki_Licks]

That's sad. We have about 18 homes in our subdivision area that are foreclosures and it sucks driving out everyday looking at the same thing you are undergoing.

If it keeps up, we may just leave this area and Phoenix all together. Seattle would be nice or somewhere near there, even Lake Coeur d'Alene....who knows, just fed up with Phoenix.

I am aware there are problems everywhere, especially like the info mentioned in this thread, but if we decide to leave, it will be out of this city.....

[MaDalton]

sad - and it will be difficult to recover from that, who wants to move into a dead town.

[IllTestYourGirls]

The housing market has a long way before it is right again. Homes need to drop another 50% before they will start to see a bomb.

"You can't live in your house and get rich"

[ottopottomouse]

Originally Posted by Rochard

To me that house doesn't look inviting at all.

[cambaby]

Lol that dont look like a recession to me Rochard, you should see Michigan man, even the NICE expensive houses like that are in MUCH worse shape.

[Sly]

Originally Posted by IllTestYourGirls

The housing market has a long way before it is right again. Homes need to drop another 50% before they will start to see a bomb.

"You can't live in your house and get rich"

I think the next two years are still going to be pretty rough. Hopefully it's only two years, but who knows. Still have a long ways to go and nothing will change until companies start hiring again.

[Loch]

Pictures from Detriot anyone? I hear its HELL in that area

[Rochard]

Originally Posted by ottopottomouse

To me that house doesn't look inviting at all.

Looks fucking haunted, doesn't it?

[Rochard]

Originally Posted by cambaby

Lol that dont look like a recession to me Rochard, you should see Michigan man, even the NICE expensive houses like that are in MUCH worse shape.

Oh, I'm sure. I'm sure the nicer areas are being hit just as hard. I read the other day that beachfront houses in Florida were going for $50k a pop.

But wait. I'm just getting started. I don't love in the ghetto or anything, it's a pretty nice town, but when you see some of the other pictures I plan on posting..... You'll be surprised.

Just to give you a hint... They were building a Sonic restaurant, you know, the old fashion drive in kind of place? They started to build it, got it half way up, about to put walls up.... Then stopped. It sat there for a year, not even half built. They just tore it down last month.

[IllTestYourGirls]

Originally Posted by Sly

I think the next two years are still going to be pretty rough. Hopefully it's only two years, but who knows. Still have a long ways to go and nothing will change until companies start hiring again.

Yeah, and sadly companies will not start to hire again until after Obama is either out of office or the full scope of his destructive polices come to light. So yeah I agree, about 2 years down the road we might see a turn around.

[clicker]

Originally Posted by ottopottomouse

To me that house doesn't look inviting at all.

I actually like it. Wonder what they are asking.

[ottopottomouse]

Originally Posted by clicker

I actually like it

To live in or do you plan on burying some victims there?

[ottopottomouse]

Originally Posted by Rochard

Looks fucking haunted, doesn't it?

If the camera panned down the street in a horror film i'd look at it and think that's definitely where all the action is going to be.

[seeandsee]

fucking obama fucked you people

[munki]

You probably see a lot more about the drought and sacramento delta issues being up North then I do down here, but I was pretty shaken up last time I drove up to San Francisco. 3/4 easily of the typical California crops we're dustbowl status. I can't imaging our very important agricultural economy in California recovering very easily any time soon.

[Amputate Your Head]

Same way here. Fucking ghost town with dead lawns.

[GTS Mark]

Wow very sad.... Are you planning on staying for the long haul Rochard??

[Rochard]

So while everyone is blaming programs closing on tubes and free porn, I'm like.... Then why are restaurants closing down left and right?

Panterra Bread closed down. I used to eat here with Loryn.



Chills closed down. Come to think of it, Applebeas did too.



FUCKING WENDYS - GONE! I used to eat here with Vendzilla and Spannow and a few others.

[kane]

I had read that the Stockton and Sacramento areas were some of the hardest hit places by the recession and housing market collapse. There was an article a little while back that people in those areas with the adjustable rate mortgages were doing something called buy and bail. Before their ARM rate unlocked and their payments often doubled or tripled they would file papers stating that they were going to be renting the house out and charging at least 80% of the mortgage. This would show on the paperwork as additional income. Then they would be free to go buy another home. Because there are so many empty homes values have often dropped in half so they could get 450K house for 200-225K. They buy the new house with a fixed rate mortgage then just walk away from the other one because once the house payment skyrockets they will never find renters for that amount.

I guess they passed a law putting an end to doing this, but it is still wild that houses have lost half their value in just a few years.

[Rochard]

This was a Strings Italian Restaurant. (Which reminds me, my all time favorite place - The Lincoln Italian Deli - closed down also.) It was a Strings, then some yahoo tried to open up a hot dog restaurant, and now it's empty.



The donut place used to be an ice cream store.

[Rochard]

We have a number of condo complexes that started, built a few dozen units, set up pads to build dozens more, and then disappeared... Complex number one:



Complex number two... This is the one that showed me how bad things were. They were building this complex, sold one unit, build two dozen, and then went out of business.



This one comes with a story. The local fire department thought it would be a great idea to stage an exercise at this complex, thinking it was empty. One unit did sell, and is being rented out a family. Fire department came rushing in like it was a real fire, scared the piss out of the family there.

[David!]

WOW, if Panera and Wendy's are closing down, this must be really bad there

[Amputate Your Head]

I'll take my camera with next time I head into town. Half the town is gone. Empty dealerships, retail giants (Mervyn's), strip malls and restaurants.... boarded up with "For Lease" signs all over them.

I said this back in '07 (privately to friends)... this "recession" will last at least until 2015, and will most definitely get much worse before it ever gets better. Everyone told me I was nuts and that by 2010, housing will have fully rebounded and money would once again be falling from the sky. Well here we are mid '10, housing is in the shitter, money is not falling from the sky, and things are much worse.

[AsianDivaGirlsWebDude]

Very poignant thread...

I went back to Ohio
But my city was gone
There was no train station
There was no downtown


Southtown it had disappeared
All my favorite places
My city had been pulled down
Reduced to parking spaces
Ay! Oh! Where did you go, Ohio?

I went back to Ohio
But my family was gone
I stood on the back porch
There was nobody home

I was stunned and amazed
My childhood memories
Saw this world past
Like the wind thorugh the trees
Ay! Oh! Where did you go, Ohio?

I went back to Ohio
But my pretty countryside
Had been paved down the middle
By a government that had no pride

The farms of Ohio
had been replaced by shopping malls
And Muzak filled the air
From Seneca to Cuyahoga Falls
Said Ay! Oh! Where did you go, Ohio?

Chrissie Hynde still rocks...

ADG

[DWB]

Christ. Doesn't look like I'm missing much by not being there.

[Amputate Your Head]

Originally Posted by Rochard

We have a number of condo complexes that started, built a few dozen units, set up pads to build dozens more, and then disappeared... Complex number one:

Suburbia is unsustainable. At some point (when the oil runs out or becomes so expensive only the rich have access to oil), we will see whole suburban "towns" sitting empty, tumbleweeds blowing through. This pic is a nice glimpse of that.

[Rochard]

Originally Posted by GTS Mark

Wow very sad.... Are you planning on staying for the long haul Rochard??

We are planning on staying here. I was going to mention this later but since you asked...

I bought my house for like $580k in 2006. It was built in 2003 but was a model home. According to Zillow, it's 3k sq feet, five bedrooms, and worth $276k (which is up compared to six months ago).

We entered into a "home retention program", which took us fourteen months of paperwork and phone calls. However, they reduced the principle on the house by half AND dropped our interest rate to 1%. You can't beat that.

[IllTestYourGirls]

Originally Posted by Rochard

We are planning on staying here. I was going to mention this later but since you asked...

I bought my house for like $580k in 2006. It was built in 2003 but was a model home. According to Zillow, it's 3k sq feet, five bedrooms, and worth $276k (which is up compared to six months ago).

We entered into a "home retention program", which took us fourteen months of paperwork and phone calls. However, they reduced the principle on the house by half AND dropped our interest rate to 1%. You can't beat that.

Was that government funded? If it is, where do I sign up? I mean I wasn't stupid enough to buy on top of the bubble, buy a house for double what its real worth was, but I would like a free house, where do I sign up?

No offense to you.... but my head is about to explode if that was government funded. How much did it save you by cutting the principle in half and drop your rate 1%?

[Agent 488]

Originally Posted by Amputate Your Head

I'll take my camera with next time I head into town. Half the town is gone. Empty dealerships, retail giants (Mervyn's), strip malls and restaurants.... boarded up with "For Lease" signs all over them.

I said this back in '07 (privately to friends)... this "recession" will last at least until 2015, and will most definitely get much worse before it ever gets better. Everyone told me I was nuts and that by 2010, housing will have fully rebounded and money would once again be falling from the sky. Well here we are mid '10, housing is in the shitter, money is not falling from the sky, and things are much worse.

yes it will be a "lost decade."

[Rochard]

Originally Posted by Amputate Your Head

Suburbia is unsustainable. At some point (when the oil runs out or becomes so expensive only the rich have access to oil), we will see whole suburban "towns" sitting empty, tumbleweeds blowing through. This pic is a nice glimpse of that.

I think your wrong.

We still have enough oil left to last us some time, and electric cars are starting to come on line that will change our driving habits. Ford yesterday announced they are selling their Hybrid Lincoln for the same price as the regular gas version. New car gets twice as much MPG in the city. With new cars MPG will increase to unheard of levels, reducing the amount of oil we need, which will maintain us until everyone drives electric cars.

I do see some changes, however. I think in the future people won't commute to jobs. Most of us will work from home, and houses will be built with home offices built in. My wife drives into Sacramento every day, and there's no need for it. She has a computer here at home, and if she needs to talk to anyone she can do video conferencing.

[Jarmusch]

Originally Posted by TheDoc

Move back into rentals and apartments, back home basically?

Back to their parent's basement, who themselves must be struggling to get by on their pensions.

[Ron2k1]

Looks pretty bad, the situation in most of the Netherlands is not even close to that.

[TheDoc]

Originally Posted by Rochard

With my hometown I don't think it was so much that we overbuilt, but instead that everything was new - all new loans, all crappy loans. When everything went down hill, first to go was the crappy loans... Which was most of the loans in my new community here.

I kinda take the over loaning and bad loans as one of main the reason why they built so many houses, helping create the overbuilt once it failed.

At least our area doesn't look like yours, yours is crazy. I don't think we have had a foreclosed house in this area, at all this year and overall very few did and they filled back up quickly. They really knock the value of the houses down and ours has slowly been catching back up. Knock on wood....

[Rochard]

Originally Posted by IllTestYourGirls

Was that government funded? If it is, where do I sign up? I mean I wasn't stupid enough to buy on top of the bubble, buy a house for double what its real worth was, but I would like a free house, where do I sign up?

No offense to you.... but my head is about to explode if that was government funded. How much did it save you by cutting the principle in half and drop your rate 1%?

I did in fact buy at the height of the market. And you would think that looks stupid of me. But... I also sold at the height of the market. I bought my house in Phoenix for $220k, and sold it in 2006 at for $540k. So in a way I just sort of traded houses, and I'm in a much nicer house (although without a pool) and I don't complain about the Phoenix weather.

Was it government funded? I don't know. I believe so.