What are you seeing economically in your area?

I'm in the midwest and I'm seeing a couple of things.

For the first time in about 3-4 years I'm starting to see forclosures
I've noticed everyone, and I mean everyone complaining about food prices
People are also complaining about building supplies and how hard they are to get and also the prices
I was actually told by contractor to just wait don't build anything right now

I've noticed the houses being built are super expensive and look extremely low end and cheap, we're talking close to
million dollar houses only having five cabinets in the kitchen and very low end finishes.

I've noticed people are complaining about utilities. Somehow this has not affected me personally, my utilities seem to be the same for right now.

CRIME...........this is the worst, it's happening. Crime is seeping into areas that never had it before.
Car breakins, purse snatching etc.

Any noticable changes in your area?

food -
up about 40%

originally posted by: JAGStorm
I'm in the midwest and I'm seeing a couple of things.

For the first time in about 3-4 years I'm starting to see forclosures
I've noticed everyone, and I mean everyone complaining about food prices
People are also complaining about building supplies and how hard they are to get and also the prices
I was actually told by contractor to just wait don't build anything right now

I've noticed the houses being built are super expensive and look extremely low end and cheap, we're talking close to
million dollar houses only having five cabinets in the kitchen and very low end finishes.

I've noticed people are complaining about utilities. Somehow this has not affected me personally, my utilities seem to be the same for right now.

CRIME...........this is the worst, it's happening. Crime is seeping into areas that never had it before.
Car breakins, purse snatching etc.

Any noticable changes in your area?

Companies don’t want to pay enough to live where I do . Apparently the police quit arresting people so where I live it’s turning to a dump . The cops need to start arresting the violent and the thieves and lock their asses up

a reply to: JAGStorm

Lots of closed small business, now we have a few new ones coming down, but they are big chains, we are getting one that is German base that will compete with Chinamart, (walmart).

We lost soo many big manufacturing ten years ago, now most of the small business. Crime is still the same.

Choices at the grocery store are limited. You can find things, but less of a range of those things. Prices are, of course, much higher.

Our grocery store seems to be coping with this by consolidating shelves. Husband overheard one of the produce workers complaining about how hard it was to get in an order of a large amount of any one thing suggesting limited supplies.

Our neighborhood hasn't changed much. We are not getting all those annoying "sell your house" calls that we were getting about a year ago.

Our city has not been allowed to pull a defund, so crime is about the same ... maybe a bit worse. The mayor and city council want to play funding games though because it's the "in" thing to do, so times could get interesting crime wise. It's a really tough time to start a business right now. So far, the ones with established clientele seem to be making.

Gas prices keep inching up. $3.16 a gallon today. Food prices as well, but not as noticeable to me. I do see empty shelves in the supermarket now much more than in the past. Theft is the biggest change; in cities it's an every night occurance to have midnight shoppers breaking into vehicles. Car theft and CC theft on the rise. And tent cities proliferating where they never had before. NE Oklahoma area.

a reply to: cclay6482

We've had the increased homeless for a while though, even before COVID. It hasn't caused more of them that I've noticed unless they're in a different area than the ones I drive through frequently here.

I know they exist and are a problem though. There was a fire at a camp tucked under and overpass that shut down a whole section of I-70 for a solid weekend. It was a fatality fire for one, and for the other, they had to do serious testing of the whole structure to make sure the fire hadn't compromised its integrity.

a reply to: JAGStorm

The preacher man says it's the end of time
And the Mississippi River she's a-goin' dry
The interest is up and the Stock Market's down
And you only get mugged if you go downtown

I live back in the woods, you see
My woman and the kids, and the dogs, and me
I got a shotgun, a rifle, and a 4-wheel drive
And a country boy can survive
Country folks can survive

Yesterday I paid $95+tax for a snow shovel, because the one I bought last time around was some cheap Chinese piece of #. For the cost of another six inches of handle it could have been a great design that would last for years.

Meanwhile my plow truck has been regulated into junk and I need a replacement...

What I'm seeing is a need to double my pay, in a world looking to cut it in half.

a reply to: ketsuko

Choices at the grocery store are limited. You can find things, but less of a range of those things. Prices are, of course, much higher.

First time in my life, no bananas at the grocery store...

Fairbanks, auto theft seems to be the new rage.

But the worst in my opinion is seeing posts of people trying to buy 200 dollars' worth of heating oil at a time.

Considering how much time is left in the winter and the cost of heating oil this year (thanks joe) next major cold snap and we will see death's and or hospitalizations.

ETA: as far as the grocery stores go, after food stamp day its empty gotta wait till the trucks come to be able to get anything and quite often you are getting an alternative not what you want.

a reply to: JAGStorm

All that you reported and for me the strange oddity was skyrocketing property values from 2020 to 2021, when we've been locked down and the building trades seemed to have been scaled back a bit from the rush of a few years ago. Back then there was masses for sale but now, not so much.

My place is modest and went up almost 40%. My huge concern is for myself and other people being forced out upon retirement for not being able to make their property taxes. My folks were paying over $13000 a year for two acres on the water. It is premium land but a very old house, on the edge of a little town, with no services as they are considered rural, so no garbage pickup, no water. They'll be ok because there's only so much waterfront to be had and it will always be hot commodity but my concern is people in more residential areas who are paying about half that and cannot afford it on a pension.

I don't have any proof but it looks to me like a tool toward "you will own nothing, and be happy"

Seattle...small business owners who were once successful...are not now because of repeated vandalism . They either move or close the business down.

At least 100 former policemen have quit.

We just don't have the protection we used to have....criminal activity is happening all around us and there is no one to protect (we the people).

Food prices for the most part are increasing as well as paper products etc.

I am not a rich person; but I am also not in debt. I just have me and my cat to take care of.

I am very concerned for (we the people); frankly right now the future looks bleak.

I'm in NW Mexico. Food prices are going up. Friends are worrying about it. Our USD is still pretty powerful here, so were not feeling it as much as they are, but it is getting ever more costly to buy groceries.

LP gas has recently gone up for the first time in years. Probably needed to, but everybody uses it for home and may for auto, so it's felt.

Gasoline is expensive here (over $4usd/gallon) but has been for a long time and has not gone up in the Mexican gasoline stations. I don't think that the ones that import from the us have raise their prices.

Construction material, especially metal, have gone up. Cement and such not so much, but metal. I recently put a new metal roof on a house that's about 8m x 8m and material came to almost $4,000usd.

We've seen no lack of goods in the stores yet. Food, hardware, etc. is all the same as far as supply goes.

When the USD finally crashes, we're gonna be in a world of pain; not just my family and me, but even our friends and neighbors. Down here they say, When the US sneezes, Mexico catches pneumonia. We'll see.

Meanwhile, I'm building a bolt-hole in a small mountain village ... just in case.

Currently traveling around, and I usually hit the grocery stores instead of fast food. I noticed a lack of anything Chicken, a lot of the stores are either out of chicken or slim pickings at ridiculous prices. Also the frozen chicken section are slim as well. I thought it was because of the I-40 shut down a few days ago, but still no restocking. This is some weird times we are living in.

Also Diesel is over $4.00 on the I-40 out west, $4.15 in NM.

a reply to: 38181

Yea I have noticed some posts, saying hey grocery store X is stocked on beef chicken what have you, then the locusts swoop in.

a reply to: JAGStorm

Its getting bad . I stocked my freezer up with some meats and got alot pastas and a couple of those big bags of pancake /waffle mix

a reply to: incoserv

Construction material, especially metal, have gone up. Cement and such not so much, but metal.

Cement here is completely insane. We were told it is because China is buying it all up.

I sqeek when I walk ,I really am that tight .

Here in the UK prices are rocketing 4 carrier bags of shopping cost me $ 75 and heating costs have doubled $ 20 used to last me 14 days for gas heating now that lasts 5 days the paint I am getting for my living room is £20 per litre and just recently the heating costs are jumping about a 1000 come April with more to come later on in the fall .

HAPPY Days

a reply to: lordcomac

Yesterday I paid $95+tax for a snow shovel, because the one I bought last time around was some cheap Chinese piece of #. For the cost of another six inches of handle it could have been a great design that would last for years.

Cheap = Expensive.
I've really started buying with extreme longevity in mind.
For example most garden tools have wooden or plastic handles, but did you know you can buy all metal ones, even the handle, it is all one piece.
In a way we have to revert to the past, screw planned obsolescence! Buy once but buy well!