Good morning. Let’s jump straight into a Monday morning roundup of economy and housing news:
- Right off the bat, if you haven’t read Rich Toscano’s analysis of Friday’s economic news (I’d reported the straight numbers here in Survival), you should do that. Toscano points out — with a bunch of helpful graphs — why the high unemployment rate is not necessarily an indication that the economy will get worse from this point on.
- The Union-Tribune took a look Saturday at distress and rising defaults in high-end neighborhoods like Point Loma, Solana Beach and Rancho Santa Fe.
- The Wall Street Journal looks at “pockets of recovery” in California. We wrote about some of those pockets in San Diego County a couple of months ago.
- The Associated Press described the trouble for homeowners associations when members, facing foreclosure or just strapped for cash, let their dues payments slide. Across the country, more than 59 million people live in communities governed by HOAs, the AP reported.
- The U-T points out in today’s paper that the computers that hold property tax information at the county offices of the assessor and the tax collector are making the backlog of tax appeals from homeowners who bought at the top of the market that much harder to get through.
- One last note: Today’s the kickoff for a countywide food drive for the San Diego Food Bank. When kids who’ve been eating free school meals are out of classes for the summer, the demand at the food bank goes way up. That along with rising unemployment prompts the food bank to seek donations in a food drive from today until Labor Day. The food bank especially requests the following items: canned meat and tuna, canned soups, canned fruits and vegetables, canned beans, dry cereal, rice, macaroni and cheese and spaghetti.
If you have food to drop off, look for red barrels at Jack in the Box restaurants, Albertsons/Sav-on Pharmacy stores and Stater Bros. supermarkets.