"Bay Area home prices slumped for a sixth straight month in August, according to a report issued Thursday by research firm CoreLogic.
The median price paid for a new or existing Bay Area home or condo was $810,000 last month, down 0.7% from July and down 2.4% from August of last year. Prices year-over-year have now been flat or falling for six consecutive months. The last increase was in February." Source.
Consumer spending barely rises in August as Americans save more.
"Consumer spending rose 0.1% last month, the government said Friday, marking the smallest gain in six months. Economists polled by MarketWatch had predicted a 0.3% increase."
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California figures in pretty heavily in a newly created list of the "50 most miserable cities" in America ...
ReplyDeleteBusiness Insider's list of the 50 most miserable cities in America.
I disagree with their choices right off the mark.
Number 50, Lancaster CA, deserves to be much higher in the rankings -- it needs to be at number 35 right above Palmdale CA because it's really Palmdale North.
It's the only place I've had to visit for business where I bought a fucking wheel clamp like the police use so I could immobilize my own vehicle just to prevent it from being stolen.
One of our customers liked the idea so much that I gave him the wheel clamp -- I dropped by his office and delivered it to him as my last item of business in Lancaster before heading north.
But where the fuck is Bakersfield in this list?
There's an OK town strip in Lancaster, a few decent coffee shops, and a few people who you can shoot the shit with in Lancaster, even if you do have to put a wheel clamp on your vehicle.
Bakersfield though ... *shudder*
The one redeeming feature of Kern County is that historically they've had a sheriff that's more likely to grant you a CA weapons permit than not.
San Bernardino at number 40 ... yeah, that's pretty much right.
But there's no way North Miami Beach is worse than Lancaster/Palmdale.
Even the flooding doesn't make it worse.
It's just a Coastal Florida Retirement Hell for the kinds of people who want to live in Miami as retired people. For nearly the same money, those people could have moved up to Boynton Beach and had a better time.
But don't believe the numbers: New Brunswick NJ?
The reason a lot of its residents aren't working is because they're college students, not only at Rutgers but also at other colleges nearby. It's not the nicest place I've ever visited, but there were plenty of startups in the area who would buy our stuff.
Number 1 though ...
One time I talked with a guy who was going home to Gary while we were waiting at a Metra station in Chicago. I couldn't figure out why he'd want to live there.
He didn't want to live there, it's what he could afford, that and being able to take the South Shore Line into Chicago to work.
The place is so messed up that you can buy a house for less than what it costs to buy a train fare into Chicago.
I didn't have the heart to tell him I was just in town on business and that I was "going home" to the Loop.
But the number 2 most miserable city?
They don't want to talk about Port Arthur's more miserable neighbor where the people used to have a highly illegal "after dark curfew" policy for some of the people who were unlucky enough to be stuck there.
Texas Monthly spread out the deets in an infamous cover-feature back in the early 1990s, you might still be able to find a copy somewhere.
Beaumont should be right next to Port Arthur on the list, at number 4, with this other town sandwiched between the two.
Plainfield NJ is heaven compared to those three places.
In Plainfield I can get a decent meal, a pretty good drink, and an honest opinion ...