I always liked Victorville, Calif. It’s got a lot of old-style charm, unlike many other communities in Southern California.
So it’s a bit distressing to read this article from the Christian Science Monitor about the bursting of the U.S. housing bubble in a Route 66 town.
Victorville and other exurbs like it lie at the core of America’s mortgage meltdown. A year ago, it was America’s second-fastest-growing city (behind New Orleans) with a 9.5 percent surge between July 2006 and July 2007. Now, foreclosures have more than doubled in the county. New home prices in the city have plunged 43 percent. […]
But for Victorville to quickly fill the houses left vacant in undersold developments, it will have to find even more ways to bring jobs to the city, say experts. That’s because long-distance commuters to metro Los Angeles, who once flocked here, are now put off by high gas prices.
“One of the challenges for Victorville will be to generate those jobs that will allow residents to stay there,” says Mr. Johnson.
This map of the housing bust shows that all of California and half of Arizona are affected. So Victorville is hardly alone.
But the point is well-taken — that towns outside of major metro areas like Los Angeles are going to have to become somewhat self-sufficient instead of being standing pat as proverbial “bedroom communities.”
With gas prices near $4 a gallon, few can afford to drive 1 1/2 hours to work anymore. So mom-and-pop stores in small towns now have an opportunity to get back some business that was once lost to the out-of-town, big-box retailer, as this article shows.