Boom and Bust in California
In 2008, California went through one of its most difficult stretches in its recent economic history. It began when, buoyed by the hope of the real estate booms of the early and mid 2000s, alluring housing appeared all across the California landscape.
But when the national economy collapsed in 2007 and 2008, real estate in California found itself quickly falling from its former heights. Among the hardest hit communities was Mountain House, a small town an hour away from San Jose, CA. At the height of the Great Recession, a whopping 90% of the mortgages in that town were underwater. In the words of a New York Times article from 2008,”this town, 59 feet above sea level, is the most underwater community in America.”
The town continues to struggle. Although the darkest days of the recession are now gone and the housing market has begun to improve, the whispers heard in the streets of Mountain House are the moanings of a town that, for a few years in the 2000s, was turned into Atlantis.
