"The homes all appeared to be empty, and there were
        no prospective buyers anywhere to be found. Surprisingly,
        the sales office was open ... but the woman working there
        had questionable English fluency. When asked how many
        homes had been sold in the past month she simply
        responded, 'Uh huh. Thank you. Yes!' and handed us some
        additional literature on the property."

  Here's the complete article from The Los Angeles Times, followed by
the angry comments of readers sickened at what the illegal alien
invasion of their state has wrought ...

Analyst sees 'ghost town' in Inland Empire (Southern California)

from The Los Angeles Times
July 2, 2008

A financial analyst fresh from a tour of construction sites in the
Inland Empire is warning Wall Street of a "ghost town" where finished
homes sit vacant and additional homes are still under construction.

  "At several properties, there were a significant number of fully
built homes sitting vacant along with a large number of additional
homes still under construction," Sandler O'Neill & Partners analyst
Aaron Deer wrote today after touring developments in Corona and
Ontario. "At one master plan community, the entire development
appeared to be vacant -- with the exception of crews working on new
construction, it was a ghost town."

  Median home prices in both communities have dropped sharply over the
last year, declining 33.6% in Corona and 30.3% in Ontario, according
to DataQuick Information Systems. In Corona, the median sales price
fell nearly $200,000 from May 2007 to May 2008, dropping from $565,000
to $375,000.

  More from Deer's note: "The homes all appeared to be empty, and
there were no prospective buyers anywhere to be found. Surprisingly,
the sales office was open ... but the woman working there had
questionable English fluency. When asked how many homes had been sold
in the past month she simply responded, 'Uh huh. Thank you. Yes!' and
handed us some additional literature on the property."

  More: "Perhaps the most interesting aspect to the development was
what it revealed about the nature of the housing boom: that at the
peak even the most undesirable and remote locations were worthy of
expensive, high-end homes."

  Overall, Deer's note on the California economy -- and the relative
health of California-based banks and thrifts -- strikes a balanced
chord, reporting that, while the "outlook remains gloomy," "the pace
of new problems has slowed somewhat."

Other highlights:

  "Not surprisingly, the banks said they are seeing continued
deterioration in their single-family residential construction
portfolios."

  "In areas where developable land is scarce, namely San Francisco and
west Los Angeles, markets are still holding up. Several banks noted
very little, if any, deterioration in credit quality in these markets.
Specifically, residential construction projects in San Francisco ...
and western Los Angeles (mostly teardown/rebuild projects) are seeing
stable prices despite slower activity."

Source: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/laland/2008/07/analyst-sees-gh.html

Note: Here's a sampling of readers' comments regarding the article
above:

  "High prices bring low sales, especially now. California has been
the highest priced place to live for more then 20 years, yet you
people act like you cannot get a grip on why the homes are vacant. No
sweat, why don't you get all those Liberal cry babies together and buy
the houses for Illegal Aliens, then you can feel as if you have done
something. Gosh I feel sorry for you poor folks."

Posted by: Lars | July 02, 2008 at 12:16 PM

  "This sentence said it all....the office worker who was NOT ENGLISH
FLUENT. Last citizen out of California, shut the lights."

Posted by: Janice Gammill | July 02, 2008 at 12:17 PM

  "Image, not just crack houses but crack suburbs. Whole tracks of
houses where gangs and crime can thrive. Even worse, imagine terror
cells taking over whole housing tracks. Scary."

Posted by: Bob Smythe | July 02, 2008 at 12:50 PM

  "I am now getting unsolicited telemarketing phone calls...
in Spanish. Please I don't, nor have I ever, had a 909
area code; I don't speak Spanish, nor do I buy stuff from
people who do. And, I don't listen to KGGI 99.1."

Posted by: yours truly, Johnny Dollar | July 02, 2008 at 02:34 PM

  "Those homes will be filled with Illigal Alien squatters soon, don't
worry. Then they'll do what they do; breed, deal drugs, and steal. All
the while, they'll thrive off gov. assistance, under the table wages,
and free housing cause no one will have the balls to come in and kick
them out.

LA needs to be burnt to the ground. Start from scratch."

Posted by: Brian | July 02, 2008 at 03:02 PM

  "It's sad to see what has become of the Inland Empire.When I was
growing up in San Bernardino 40 years ago it was still a pretty nice
place to live.I still miss the orange groves and vineyards.Not to
mention the clear mountain views.I left when I realized the place was
going to hell.I come back once in a while to see family and visit some
graves,then I can't get away fast enough.Look what you
liberal,gangbanging,illegal,out of touch people have done to my HOME!"

Posted by: paul | July 02, 2008 at 03:47 PM

  ""Hello?" " No speaky English?" " Un Huh?" "Thank you?" Nice how the
flood of illegals has turned California into a sewer. Many gringos/
anglos have left the emerging third world welfare country. The
developers thought they could fill this cracker boxes with illegals
with zero down loans and 1% ARMs."

Posted by: Freddy | July 02, 2008 at 04:47 PM

  "The good news: Soon all the illegals that framed and stuccoed these
crappy little monopoly houses will be able to afford one. Ah, the
American way."

Posted by: Ex-californian | July 02, 2008 at 04:57 PM

  "Don't get me started on the illegals buying houses! My friend, who
lives next to Eastvale in Mira Loma, has fought off illegal rodeos,
illegal churches outdoors with loud speakers, loud music (it's the
culture, stupid!), people using discarded garage doors for fencing,
cockfighting, etc. She USED to live in a decent rural neighborhood and
now she lives in Little Tijuana because the feds won't do their job
and keep these people OUT!!!

For two years now, my realtor has told me the only people buying
houses in the IE were Mexican! That's because they were offering these
low interest and no interest loans to those who can't understand what
they are buying! They couldn't afford the houses to begin with. Good
riddance to them I say.

Corona and the IE will come back, hopefully with few of the LA
transplants bringing their gang families with them this time. Last
downturn, they ruined Moreno Valley!"

Posted by: Hoosier | July 02, 2008 at 08:04 PM

  "The toilet bowl that is Los Angeles is now rimmed with scum from
Palmdale to Coachella, Rancho Cowabunga to Chino Smells, Santa Ana to
Garbage Grove, and Willowbrook to Watts.

My heartfelt apologies for leaving out Sun Valley, Monterey Park and
El Sereno as well- most of it deteriorating as a direct result of Ted
Kennedy's brilliant immigration theories and the incomparable Hart
Cellars Act of 1965.

My heartfelt condolences to the victims of King Drew Medical Center,
the Pasadena School District, and of course all current and future
graduates of Academia Semillas del Pueblo.

Believe it or not, LA used to be run by people thinking more than 15
minutes into the future."

Posted by: anon | July 02, 2008 at 09:08 PM

  "Good luck California. You've lived off the fumes and benefits of
your location for a long time. The wacko liberal policies, unchecked
ILLEGAL immigration, etc. will catch up with you eventually. It's
simply not sustainable (to use your own lingo). Never has been. Learn
from history."

Posted by: Ariel | July 03, 2008 at 06:20 AM

  "PANIC....The liberal Democrats and more liberal media just do not
want to take credit for the disaster in California.

High taxes, illegal immigration, sanctuary sities, out of control
spending and just plain stupidity of thinking that heck we can always
tax out selves out of any problem.

Well those who could or can are moving and or are abanding the
craziness of California for more sane areas of the country.

Gray Davis did not get it and neither does Arnold or the ignorant
legislature, Asta La Vista Calafornia."

Posted by: OKIEDOC | July 03, 2008 at 07:13 AM

  "I have taught high school at Bel Mar Academy for 22 years in South
Pasadena and previously a fire fighter in Norton. I can say that if
you are middle or working class white, then you cannot find a place
here. If you are rich then it is a great place, if you can get on the
coast and stay there. Aside from the high priced enclaves, Cal is a
mess. It was paradise on earth and still is if you got 2-5 million to
spend, but if you are working joes, it is Dante's hell. If you are
illegal or don't mind living with 10 relatives, I guess it is better
then Mexico. It is just like Mexico, wealthy--great place, for the
poor---Mex is hell on earth."

Posted by: Vernon Dozier | July 03, 2008 at 07:39 AM

  "The only thing is, we weren't so overrun by illegals then. That is
what is ruining the lifestyle of most Californians, the "cultural"
differences of so many illegals here. Los Angeles is all Mexican now.
They really are overtaking the state, and this is being allowed by the
liberals in the statehouse and by the federal govt. Just remember,
much of this downfall has been driven by the media. They think the
only news fit to print is bad news."

Posted by: Hoosier | July 03, 2008 at 07:57 AM

  "Of course she cannot speak english. All the Mexicans want us to
speak their language.
I am so sick of illegals coming here, not speaking the language and
then acting as if we owe them something.
GO BACK HOME..."

Posted by: Lost in LA | July 03, 2008 at 08:58 AM

  "Here is quite revealing news in this story:

L.A., Miami Home Foreclosure Rates More Than Double
...

read more »

In Prince William County, Va., ILLEGAL BEANERS WERE "Neighbors From
Hell!"

------------------------
"A Hispanic Population in Decline"

"Illegal Immigrant Policy Alters Pr. William on Many Levels"

By Nick Miroff
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, July 10, 2008; A01

The family that planted corn in the front yard of their $500,000 home
is gone from Carrie Oliver's street. So are the neighbors who drilled
holes into the trees to string up a hammock.

Oliver's list goes on: The loud music. The beer bottles. The littered
diapers. All gone. When she and her husband, Ron, went for walks in
their Manassas area neighborhood, she would take a trash bag and he
would carry a handgun. No more. "So much has changed," she said in a
gush of relief, standing with her husband on a warm summer evening
recently outside a Costco store.

A short distance away, across the river of retail commerce that is
Sudley Road, Norman Gonzalez spoke of change not as renewal, but as a
kind of collapse.

Business at his restaurant, Cuna del Sol, has declined 50 percent.
Worse still, his extended family's slow, steady relocation from the
Guatemalan town of Jutiapa to the bustling Prince William suburbs has
imploded. "A year ago, I had the biggest family in all of Manassas,
maybe 100 relatives," he said.

Now, Gonzalez, a legal U.S. resident, has his own list: Langley Park,
Chantilly, Fairfax City. That is where his brothers have scattered,
and they will not visit him. "There's too much fear here," Gonzalez
said.

Since the day one year ago when Prince William County supervisors
launched their crackdown on illegal immigration, the gulf between the
Olivers' relief and Gonzalez's dejection has narrowed little, and
possibly widened.

At least there is one thing partisans on both sides agree on: Hispanic
immigrants are leaving Prince William. Whether their departure has
improved the county's quality of life, or pushed its already strained
economy further downward, is the new topic of contention driven
largely by views of whether the presence of immigrants was a good
thing in the first place.

Anecdotes of the trend outstrip hard statistical evidence, yet there
are clear signs that the county's Latino population has reversed its
pace of rapid growth. County officials said there are 4,000 to 7,000
vacant homes in the county. Trustee notices fill the classified
section of area newspapers, chronicling the steady, staggering
forfeiture of properties by homeowners with Hispanic surnames such as
Mendez, Lozano, Medina and Rodriguez.

Last month, there were 776 foreclosure recordings in the Prince
William County, Manassas, Manassas Park area, court records show, up
from 244 in June 2007 and 19 in June 2006.

Would those homeowners have been foreclosed upon anyway, for economic
reasons having nothing to do with the county's illegal immigration
policies? That, too, is disputed.

"You can't attribute all of what might be negative about the economy
in Prince William County to the crackdown," said economist Stephen
Fuller, director of George Mason University's Center for Regional
Analysis. "But it certainly hasn't helped. Neighborhoods that have
been weakened because of migration of the Hispanic community out of
the county have economic consequences that show up as decreases in
retail spending, rental income and potential decreases in the
valuation of some housing."

That decrease -- home prices in some areas have fallen by half -- is
well worth the improvement in quality of life, according to the most
ardent supporters of the county's get-tough approach.

"We have far less residential overcrowding, and that was driving
people crazy," said Greg Letiecq, a blogger and president of Help Save
Manassas. He helped write the county's policy and has been its most
vocal champion. "We'd much rather live next door to a vacant house,"
he said, speaking for his members at a recent Help Save Manassas
meeting.

"With an empty house, there's hope that the house is going to have
somebody move into it that's going to be a good neighbor, rather than
an overcrowded house that is a neighbor from hell," Letiecq said,
adding that his Manassas area home has dropped $100,000 in value in
the past year.

The numbers suggest that tensions over crowding have subsided:
Complaints about residential overcrowding dropped to 30 last month
from 79 in July 2007, according to the county's Neighborhood Services
Division.

While some Hispanic immigrants have walked away from their homes,
others have left the county in the custody of federal agents. County
jail officials have turned over 757 illegal immigrant inmates to
Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in the past year through
an agreement that county supervisors approved as part of the
crackdown.

Police have referred more than 300 additional suspects to the
immigration and customs branch since March, when the county's patrol
officers began screening for residency status.

Catching illegal immigrants has made Prince William safer, said Corey
A. Stewart (R-At-Large), chairman of the board of county supervisors
said. Stewart also said the county's policies have led to "a
plummeting of the crime rate." Police statistics show that the
county's crime rate has been declining since 2004, even as the
population increased.

More importantly, Stewart said, Prince William has become a model for
other jurisdictions hoping to act against illegal immigration. "We've
started a wildfire in terms of other localities and states adopting
similar tactics," said Stewart, who discussed the county's immigration
enforcement success Tuesday with the House Republican Policy Committee
on Capitol Hill.

While critics say ethnic tensions in Prince William have worsened in
the past year, Stewart said he believes the debate over illegal
immigration has empowered residents to speak up after "stewing" in
frustration for years. "It's allowed people to discuss their
feelings," Stewart said, citing a new level of public interest in
local government. The board's chambers have been packed with hundreds
of residents on several occasions over the past year.

"It's better for people to feel free to speak out about something they
care about rather than holding it inside, and in that sense, the
controversy has been good for the county as well as the country,"
Steward said.

Paying for the crackdown has been an ongoing source of tension, and
supporters have long maintained that the county would save money
through a decreased need for English classes for students who speak
another language at home. After years of steady increases, the
percentage of students enrolled in English as a Second Language
classes appears to have peaked.

In September, the number of students with limited English proficiency,
not all of whom were Hispanic, was a record 13,404 in the county
school system. By the end of the school year, the total had fallen 4.7
percent, to 12,775.

Then there are the many smaller, symbolic signs that the county has
changed in the past year. Rodeo-themed Latino festivals at the county
fairgrounds, once a summer staple, have been canceled without
explanation by organizers. The El Primero Mercado supermarket on
Centreville Road is now a Shoppers International store. And several
county services, including drug-treatment programs and in-home care
for seniors, now require proof of citizenship.

Starting this month, for example, a county-funded house-cleaning
service for the elderly will make sure all recipients are legal U.S.
residents.

Such restrictions may not keep illegal immigrants out of Prince
William if the steep decline in housing prices eventually lures legal
and illegal immigrants back to the county. And advocates said Latinos
have learned "clear political lessons" in the past year.

"The community has learned that votes matter," said Mauricio Vivero,
director of the Ayuda Business Coalition, which has lobbied
legislators and has run commercials on CNN warning other
municipalities of the economic consequences in following Prince
William's lead.

Vivero said that fewer than half of the Latinos in Prince William who
were registered to vote in 2004 did so. In November, he predicted,
"there will be a much bigger turnout in Northern Virginia, and [Prince
William's crackdown] has helped push it."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/09/AR200...