Sacramento's Population Boom

From Home Front:

Three years after Sacramento became one of the first cities in America to see its real estate market sliding back down the hill, one of the first metros to tell the investment world that all had gone way, way too far this time, the Wall Street fallout is worsening...Did the Wall Street crowd get this housing boom all wrong or what?

From the Sacramento Bee:

The economy's downturn hits home with Paul Petrovich, one of the Sacramento region's most prolific retail developers. Consumers aren't spending as they once did, construction credit has tightened and retailers right now don't have much appetite for opening new stores.
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Q: How is the credit crunch affecting your business?

No one is immune. The banks are coming to us and saying, "Look, this isn't 2005 or 2006 anymore. We want you to pay down our loan by $2 million, $4 million. In fact, I've had to do that on three projects recently. Developers with sound fundamentals who didn't go buy a jet or live a lavish lifestyle, who have experienced downturns and knew the good times wouldn't last forever, they have the capacity to deal with this. But I don't care how good you are, if things don't eventually get better, there won't be many people left standing.

From the Sacramento Business Journal:

C.C. Myers’ dream of building a luxury golf community north of Auburn has sunk the contractor an estimated $109 million into debt and could cost him his ownership in the renowned company that bears his name. Counting potential liability for construction projects, his liabilities total $309 million, according to documents filed this week in his bankruptcy case. The Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation could wipe out a lifetime’s worth of assets for Myers, whose efforts to rebuild roads and bridges have earned him national acclaim. At stake is $45 million in personal property, including his 45 percent ownership of C.C. Myers Inc., valued at $13.5 million, his $5 million Fair Oaks home, a $10 million Lake Tahoe vacation home and land holdings.

From Bloomberg:

U.S. foreclosure filings rose to a record in August as falling home prices made it harder to sell or refinance homes to pay off the mortgage, RealtyTrac Inc. said.
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California had eight of the 10 metropolitan areas with the highest foreclosure rates, led by Stockton at one in 50 households. Merced, Modesto, Vallejo-Fairfield and Riverside-San Bernardino ranked second through fifth. Bakersfield, Salinas- Monterey and Sacramento, the state capital, ranked eighth through 10th.

From the Sacramento Bee:

"For Sale" signs sprout on suburban lawns, brown and neglected, signaling foreclosures. The bulletin board at the One-Stop county job center features such opportunities as cashier, carwash attendant, karaoke jockey, secret shopper. Empty storefronts are like missing teeth along Marysville's historic downtown district, and a line forms by 10 a.m. at the Olivehurst Recycling Center – cash for cans.
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From once prosperous new housing developments south of Marysville to stubborn pockets of poverty in nearby Olivehurst, the county of 72,000 is hurting more than almost any other place in California. On the index of human suffering, Yuba County ranks abysmally high. Unemployment: second-highest in California. Foreclosures per capita: No. 10 in the state. Poverty rate: third among the state's 40 largest counties.

From KCRA:

The continuing housing and foreclosure crisis in Northern California has caused a bunny bonanza. The number of rabbits currently arriving at the Sacramento SPCA is double what it normally is at this point in the year, officials said.