Posted by Keith in Washington [108.162.245.67] on Saturday, April 29, 2017 at 12:51:58 :
In Reply to: Hard times posted by Sherman in Idaho [108.162.245.199] on Saturday, April 29, 2017 at 03:37:41 :
Yea I thought I saw something about the 72K poverty level here. The real problem here is the price of houses and the lack of supply of houses. This us caused by a couple of things. First is the booming tech industry and all the people and jobs they bring. We are getting a lot of Californians again because it is just too expensive in the Bay Area and housing is cheaper here and there are tech jobs. Additionally, since Vancouver BC slapped a tax on foreign home buyers and investors they have been buying in this market. The second issue is the supply of houses. The 2008 depression is still being felt as they did not build many houses for years. They are building tall apartment buildings like crazy right now. But too little too late. Also it is very difficult to build here with all the regulations and a very liberal left leaning government who is trying to protect everything in the environment. They really restricted building to what are called urban areas which really stops a lot of development as land is not turning over fast enough in the urban areas and it is hard to build large apartments anywhere but in the downtown core.
I don't think the coasts are trying to leave but they really have problems with the influx of people. They are quite different from the rest of the country because of this. The center and rural areas are loosing people and going under due to job losses and inability of smaller farms and businesses to compete with the big guys. People are moving to the coasts and have been for years. Look at the political map. It is only blue basically along the coasts in major urban areas with a couple of exceptions. The balance of the country is red. You got to wonder if the liberals have deliberately moved to the urban areas. I think not, I believe that the issues faced in the urban areas are so different than the rural areas that they end up being politically different. I just read a couple newspaper articles from 1883 and it was really harping on the St Louis and other urban areas about what were called the Sunday laws which restricted work and drinking on that day. They could not see why they could not shut down for Sunday and why in the heck do the trains need to run on Sunday. It sounded so much like today but with different issues. I must admit my 2X great grandfather in St Louis was busted for serving liquor on Sunday in his store and bar.
Other prices are going up here to cover costs. I just had a quote of $750 to replace the 4 shocks on my 2013 F350 with Monroe Magnums. I had the front end aligned and they found a bad shock. The highest price I could find for the shocks was $55 each at NAPA. That leaves $530 in labor for less than an hours work. I spent the $220 and took 45 minutes to replace all the shocks with no air tools.
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