The Economy In Palm Springs
I just got back from winning third place in the U.S. Tennis Association's national doubles tournament for 3.5 Senior (over age 50) men in Palm Springs, CA. It was a great getaway from the woes of Wall Street, but not from those of Main Street.
The first headline that greeted me in The Desert Sun was about home foreclosures. I didn't expect foreclosures in Palm Springs, but they had 190 foreclosures in the third quarter of this year. A friend threw us a celebration party Sunday in a tony gated community in Indian Wells -- next door to a boarded up foreclosed home.
We ate at a fancy restaurant in downtown Palm Springs Saturday night. They gave all 21 of us our own room. I saw five other customers there the whole night.
The next day's headline was about increased fees for water. As we drove to the Indian Well Tennis Garden, we passed over a huge dry riverbed. If we make it back next year, there won't be any more grass here.
I didn't stay long enough to here about unemployment or an upsurge in crime or the other characteristics of a severe recession.
I kidded one of my teammates, a stockbroker, that if he was back at work he'd have to answer the phone to sell more stocks and buy more T-bills on which he makes almost no commission, and he didn't laugh.
At least we could still afford to travel to this tournament. Two of my teammates run teams of younger players who made next weekends USTA 3.5 adult mens national tournament at Indian Wells, and both were having trouble getting 20 and 30 year-olds to make the trip because it was too expensive to travel across the country from D.C.
I was grateful to get a respite from Washington economic policy, but I was saddened by what I found in the economy of Palm Springs.
Funny that you had to go to Palm Springs
to see how bad the economy is. For me it's just a matter of looking at the foreclosure listings in the local paper. There are so many that they print a special section for them.
Last night we went to a local restaurant and we (husband, me) saw only two other customers there the whole time. A few months ago we could go on a weeknight and there would be 25-30 customers.
A bit out-of-touch
Congrats on your win! As to your points: ALL the riverbeds are dry in Palm Springs almost all year long. It is the desert, after all. They only have water for a short period of time in the winter. Some only fill during floods. Always been that way. Palm Springs relies on groundwater and their State Water Project allotment from Northern California. As SWP pipes don't run that far, they exchange their allotment with customers of the Colorado Aqueduct running nearby. Due to a court decree last year, SWP clients are facing 25% cuts in their allotments, thus the increased fees. As it is, the PS area consumes incredible amounts of water there, what with all the golf courses and the like being irrigated in a hot desert. As a result, humidity is far higher now than 30 years ago.
Can't imagine why you didn't expect to find so many foreclosures in PS. It has always been a boom-and-bust locale for builders and has one of the highest concentrations of vacation homes in California. Within the past year, DR Horton sold for a mere $7.6 million property it purchased for $100 million a few years ago.