Published: February 15, 2008 | Author: Krystina Orozco & Pasckie Pascua
Total Views: 709 | Philippine News
LOS ANGELES — With evidence piling up that the nation is headed for a recession this year, Filipino Americans ponder their immediate future with caution and concern. Taking their cue anywhere from Lou Dobbs to their neighborhood mortgage lender, FilAms are mostly staying put and counting the money in their banks. Big-ticket spending, such as travels and cruises, are probably put on hold for now. Bargain hunting has become the new religion.
“Truth is, I had to sell my Lakers season pass at eBay just to pay up some bills,” says UCLA student Jason Bayot, who also accepts work as website designer/developer. “I haven’t been receiving any work. Most of my clients were real estate companies and resort developers. They’ve been hit by the current economic slide.”
Bayot adds his planned Caribbean cruise with his girlfriend has also been put on hold because of the financial crunch. Another FilAm who has begun the belt-tightening exercise is Janice San Luis, 43, a real estate broker in Lakewood in LA County. “Not good news for my sister who’s visiting from Charlotte,” she says. “I was supposed to buy my sister’s kids tickets to Disneyland for this summer, but I couldn’t close out a deal. The housing market, I heard, is dragging down the rest of the economy. In fact, I may have to rent out a room in my house soon to pay my own mortgage but that itself is hard to sell these days. I have to turn to Craigslist.”
A recession happens when the economy shrinks for six straight months. The last time that happened was 2001 after the dot com bubble burst. Wall Street analysts have switched on the red light of a 2008 recession following recent economic reports that indicated a spike in the jobless rate and a decline in home sales and manufacturing, plus a decrease in consumer spending.
Economists predict that consumer spending will likely post a small outright decline – unlike in the 2001 recession – as the housing downturn contributes to a negative wealth effect and consumers find it harder to obtain credit.“I usually don’t pay attention to enormous economic terminologies like recession,” confides Romina Divinagracia, a pediatric nurse at Mountain View Hospital in Las Vegas. “But I have recently been alarmed by what I’ve been reading. Recession means I might even be laid off or something.”
She has reason to worry. Hospitals and health care centers, while relatively shielded from recessionary forces, are also experiencing budget cuts and a financing crunch. But it is the housing market which has seen the most dramatic effects of a looming recession: For Sale signs that never go away, realty agents losing their shirts, mortgage companies losing the roof over their heads. Where it spelled trouble for contractors and mortgage lenders, everyone – from investors to homebuyers -- seems to be sitting out this long dry spell.
“The market is very troublesome,” complains independent real estate agent Anita Pascual, as she laments leaving a sparsely attended Saturday open house in a suburb in Mission Valley East in San Diego, CA. “Real estate is slumping.” The downturn in the housing market in sunny San Diego exemplifies impending economic woes—realities that affect other cities with large density of Filipino populations, like Los Angeles, San Francisco, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Miami, Washington DC, and New York.
“The Philippines’ economic life is very connected with the U.S. economy,” says Bayot, “recession means unemployment, investments slowing down. Filipino workers get hit."
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