To: bobby beara who wrote (11847 ) 5/19/1998 11:53:00 PM From: Pete Young Read Replies (3) | Respond to
I have to second bobbybeara on deflation, Tarus. I'll give you an real-life example. We have had a rental in Southern Oregon since '94, and never had a problem renting it. This spring though, something is different. Lots of calls, more than we've ever experienced...but most people just can't qualify on income grounds. Finding people who could afford this place was really tough this time. I should say that the number of people calling who cannot afford the place (it's in the country and appeals to a certain slice of people) has been edging up for a couple of years now. Contrast that to the number of want ads in the local paper...it's off the scale compared to the ten years I've been around. But---the jobs are, with just a few exceptions, service-oriented (retirement economy) and pay pretty badly. (Like, here's a place you can be for 8 or more hours a day, but you'll just be hanging on...wearing out your capital investments (car, house, clothes).) There _are_ [a few]exceptions...all in high-technology areas (Network engineer, programming, electronics)...which is amazing, in that those kinds of jobs in the past did not even appear...didn't need to be advertised here. The stock market and high technology jobs (suited for only a few pretty darn bright folks) are papering over what seems like a pretty grim time for most people. As bobby mentioned before, I'm also personally aware of people trying to keep up with those plugged into the stock market by using credit...overusing credit. (It's pretty crazy to observe...I run a much lower flash level, but am at least somewhat liquid--no debt.) The historically high default rate on credit cards seems to buttress this observation.
