Maybe slightly off topic but an interesting read. Sounds like the area in question has had a very severe downturn on account of rising fuel prices. I keep wondering when the property bubble in this country is going to burst too, my feelings are that it already has in a lot of places, just a few vested interests (estate agents, lenders, people looking to sell) talking it up effectively in the media.
Then Katrina hit in 2005. Gasoline prices skyrocketed. Most of the people in the area commute to the city for work. The cost of gasoline made that commute much more expensive. When I moved here gasoline cost about $1.20 a gallon. Recently I filled up at $2.69. When I moved here, $400 a month was my budget for gasoline. The same amount of fuel would cost me close to $900 a month. Just to commute. Because of the added commuting cost, people are not buying property out this far anymore. Real estate sales slowed to near nothing.
People here were totally blindsided by how quickly property values declined. Even those of us who were aware of a housing bubble thought the decline would be slow. That's probably still true in other regions, at least for now. The larger cities and suburbs have regional real estate economies that aren?t feeling the demand pressure rural areas get from the cost of commuting. But for areas like mine where the sudden increase in the cost of commuting pushed people over the edge, once that price decline cascade gets started there is no stopping it.
