At the height of the internet bubble when California was flush with revenue, Gray Davis increased spending on the assumption that this trend would continue. Many of these contracts were backloaded and are punishing us now. Take a look at revenues and expenditures for California over the last ten years and you will see this.
It's a oft repeated cycle. The same thing is happening in L.A. Tons of new buildings and conversions from downtown to mid-Wilshire to Hollywood. Failed condo developments left and right. Those deals then become rentals which of course depress existing rental and resale values over the short term. What happens next? New developments are tabled because they can't get financed which stymies pipeline supply. Then over x years the old stuff becomes fully occupied and rents increase which brings resale prices higher on a p/e basis. Because of sky high construction costs coupled with sluggish demand and tighter lending, I'd guess we might not see a ton of new projects for decades. Just like the 30's, 40's and 50's were dark days for builders. But in areas with population growth-and I suspect there's no shortage of American's who'd like to live in L.A.-at the right price demand will stir and then an upside vacuum begins all over again. Whereas in Detroit one literally can't give a home away for free-I doubt the Pacific Palisades will ever suffer similar indifference from the marketplace.
Public employees: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2009/02/post_159.html http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2009/0216/078.html
Nobody seems to have mentioned that Enron fucked this state out of about 30 billion (some estimates are higher) during those fabricated "rolling" blackouts. That's what put us into debt in the first place and got Davis essentially thrown out of office. How does a state recover from a hit like that?" As another poster said, we can't exactly print money.
Socialist Democrats. Same thing is going to happen to USA unless we get rid of Obama and his motley crew of tax cheats, liars, communists.
Mexicans, the illegal type. Combine that with the lunatic left that believes that all the illegals have the same rights as everyone else and, viola, implosion. It's a simple matter of fact that trying to be all things to all people is a recipe for disaster.
You all hit it on the head. Modern day California voters are the stupidest species of douchebag known to man......
I've got rental pricing power in the units I currently own here. Demand is fairly strong as evidenced by price. And there is lot'sof competition for other quality properties coming on the market. I'm convinced that those who aren't familiar with this market think everything south of Santa Barbara is Riverside and the I.E. There are too many people reading the same gloomy headlines. I'm here to tell ya...its just not that bad here in this little sub-market of L.A.