No telling.

When I was at one house a City Utility worker pulled up to turn on the water. She told me the city cut 60 jobs in the utility dept. alone. As I mentioned we have 3 entire schools shutting down due to budget problems. Again, as mentioned this cities industry was building houses, that has all but come to a screeching halt.

Layoffs are everywhere, I used to be a 15 employee company, now a 2 person outfit. I am loosing competitors left and right. 2 local ones decided to check out on their own, another died of cancer, 3 other outfits closed down and many will follow. I am honestly not sure if I will make it. I have enough money in reserve personally to live for 2-3 years with no income. I still have 1 employee but he is expensive, I put him on notice today to be prepared for the worst.

Tons of retail and major food chain outfits are shut down. Every shopping center has vacancy and there are many instances where the entire commercial building is empty.

One client built a 3 story commercial building and could not rent a single unit in it. He was in my office last week sobbing about the loss he has taken on it, he built the building for 4.5 Mil and it just went in a short sale for 2 Mil.

Right now we are grabbing all we can work and money wise and being frugal. I have changed a lot of my personal lifestyle habits in order to keep expenses down. All we can do is keep a positive attitude, its encouraging how many houses are selling here, I mean we are actually busy busy busy for a 2 man outfit, doing 7 jobs in one day is humping it hard and I am beat. I also have to take work home tonight to finish drawing up. But I am glad to be busy.



I can go on and on, I am curious what its like elsewhere in the country.

Same, same.

You know it's bad when your fav restaurants change their food vendors and the quality of the meals goes south. We even remarked to the server about the decline in quality at one place. Server said she gets 3 complaints a shift compared to 5 raves a month ago.

We got to the parking lot and decided to not go back. Wondered on the way home if we should have said something to the manager.

A week later the place closed for good.

There was a thread not too long ago about personal service at the banks and stores on the upswing because only the cream of the crop employees were being retained thru the cutbacks.

I thought just the opposite, and started the DGAS commentary.

When it's all over, I hope to be around to tell how we survived this mess.

Wow, your story sounds like a news reporters dream.

Nothing like that is happening here- lots of places for sale but most sellers are still not willing to drop their price so they just go off the market without selling. I see them then put up a rental sign and within a few months find a renter.


I am looking at a great bargain for sale this Saturday- it's a short sale that already has multiple offers though.

Real estate is so tempting now, but I did the landlord thing and nothing felt better than getting out from under it. I really waffle given the prices I see. Should I/shouldnt I? I guess if I lost my job, it would give me something to do.
HSAT, I did sell for a decent profit, and with improvements, etc, etc, avoided capital gains.
Yay for me.
(doesn't cover my 401(k) and stock losses, though. Bummer for me.)