Stockton Waterfront
I heard about this on the radio this week. Thanks to William Teach over at Stop the ACLU for posting about it. According to Forbes, my fair city of Stockton California is one of eight California cities to rank on "America's Most Miserable Cities", and not only did we make the Top Ten, we're Number One! (Cleveland, OH, about twenty miles from where I just moved back from a year or so ago, is #10.)
Located in the state's Central Valley, Stockton has been ravaged by the housing bust. Median home prices in the city tripled between 1998 and 2005, when they peaked at $431,000. Now they are back to where they started, as the median price is forecast to be $142,000 this year, according to research firm Economy.com, a decline of 67% from 2005. Foreclosure filings affected 6.9% of homes last year in the Stockton area, the seventh-highest rate in the nation, according to online foreclosure marketplace RealtyTrac.
Stockton's violent crime and unemployment rates also rank among the 10 worst in the country, although violent crime was down 10% in the latest figures from the FBI. Jobless rates are expected to decline or stay flat in most U.S. metro areas in 2011, but in Stockton, unemployment is projected to rise to 18.1% in 2011 after averaging 17.2% in 2010, according to Economy.com.
Frying pan and fire, anyone? Thank you, Liberals!
For those of you who may not be familiar with California geography, here is a map locating Stockton. (About eighty miles inland from the ocean)
More pictures can be found here.
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