When we first bought our house the Kindergarten classes in our school that my eldest attended had 80% white, 15% latino and 5% black/native american or other.
My eldest is now 20 and my youngest (child #7) is now in kindergarten. In her class of 30 there are 2 white, 2 native american, 1 black and 25 mexican, most of whom are illegals.
There are other classes that are entirely mexican. Once the law went into effect, (to fine employers who hire illegal aliens) many mexicans went back to Mexico. Our school district had to let some teachers go because enrollment actually went down!! But there are still too many of them here.
No matter what the government says, Arizona is in a full recession... almost depression. I've seen all of the stats in black and white. (This morning) Construction has died and we are still way overbuilt. There are more empty homes and commercial properties than ever before. MLS has a 10 to 11 month supply of EMPTY homes for sale. (3-4 months in a normal market) Foreclosures continue at an all time high. Home prices have dropped from 27% to 34% since the high in July of 2006. They will continue to drop until at least the first or second quarter of 2010. Folks who bought their homes from January of 2005 to December of 2006 now have homes that are worth much less than they owe on them. Many are just having foreclosure parties where they strip the home of EVERYTHING of value and then they walk away.
I went to breakfast with a goodly number of business leaders in Scottsdale this morning and listened to one of AZ's best economists. The writing is on the wall. If the next elected administration raises taxes AT ALL, it will spin the US and then the world into a full fledged depression.... it is that fragile. First it was Bear/Stearns, then Freddie and Fannie, many got their tax refunds early and it still has the US economy going down hill fast. Trying to fund education for US kids the way BHO has proposed, will just speed up our fall. We are already bankrupt. Bush and the Dem. congress did us absolutely no favors. Forget Iraq, his "compasionate 'conservatism'" has ruined us. Someone has to come on board who will stop spending, reduce government and if extra monies go out, it should be to help companies in alternative energies and fuels that will actually be 'green'.
Ethanol was the most idiotic NON-green experiment the US ever did. All it has done is to pollute rivers downstream, (look at the Louisiana delta); raise the price of corn flakes (and other foods) and it actually ended up making most fuel even more expensive. (end of this portion of rant)
Health care costs in AZ are high, because of illegal immigrants. They all get on food stamps right away and I see it in the grocery stores all of the time.
If I had been intelligent 14 months ago, I would have liquidated to cash/CDs/etc... all of my retirement that is in mutual funds. MFs will continue to go DOWN for the next 2 to 3 years. I'm getting entirely out of the market by January if I have anything left there.
Early 2010 should be a good time to invest in properties in AZ as they will then be at the price they should have been at back in 2005 before the bubble. By then, we should finally be getting back to the bottom of the bubble that has burst.
I would love for us to help immigration speed up, but legally. The streets of Phoenix are terrorized by the Mexican Mafia and their drug lords and underlings. Most of the crime here is due to that. Most of the police officers that are shot in AZ are by illegal aliens. When Sherriff Arpaio started doing his illegal alien crime sweeps, crime began to go down. Our Mayor (who will soon be booted out of office) tried to make Phoenix an illegal aliens haven and it just made crime shoot up. One of my good friends who is a Phoenix Police officer (can't tell you where he works it would give him away) says that the chief and the mayor have almost ruined Phoenix by prohibiting officers from doing illegal alien checks at crime scenes.
Well, there you have it from the front lines. I'm certain it is spreading across the US.
Best thing you can do is get a fuel efficient vehicle. Grow as much of your own food as you can and store as much of it as you can for a rainy day. Our only hope of not going into a full fledged depression is to have an administration who will lower taxes. Herbert Hoover raised taxes and we all know the result. The current Dem ticket appears to be following in his footsteps.
OK rant is over.
