[quote=pri_dk]Allan, do you think Fallbrook is getting hit hard because a lot of families are small business owners (many in real-estate related businesses)?

Almost every mortgage broker I know lives around there…[/quote]

Pri_dk: Yup. A lot of folks are either in construction (or construction related) or FIRE (finance, insurance, real estate). These were the same folks that were throwing money around in the boom like there was no tomorrow. Almost of all the small boutiques on Main Street are getting hammered and several have gone out of business and the restaurants are in the same boat. Amongst the kids playing youth football, I’ve gotten more inquiries about the availability of scholarship funds, and these inquiries are coming from the people that you’d least expect to ask.

One of the other telling signs, at least to me, is the number of people that pay for their groceries with credit cards. I’ve had others dismiss this as a telling sign, offering the retort that using a credit card for groceries is more convenient, but I don’t buy it. I think it shows financial strain and lack of cash flow.

Last thing. We were in the Costco in Temecula for our monthly run and my wife wrote a check for the tab (we spend about $600/mo there). The cashier had to get a manager’s override on the check. I said that I hadn’t seen them do this before and the cashier replied that, because so many people had been bouncing checks there recently, Costco lowered the override amount from $1,000 to $300. Needless to say, I found that very interesting.