Apparently Businessweek has even heard of Prince William County’s dirty little secret. In a March 6 article entitled, “ Signs of Life from the Real Estate Market,” Prince William County is highlighted as being abuzz with real estate buyers. That was the good news. Read on hear the bad news:
Across the country in Prince William County, Va., outside Washington D.C., buyers are out in force. The market, where subprime loans and boom-time construction were rampant, was badly damaged in the downturn. Making matters worse, a controversial law in Prince William County that allowed police officers to enforce immigration laws helped drive out many of the Central American immigrants who came in to work on building the new homes during the boom. Many of those immigrants who moved to neighboring Fairfax County allowed their Prince William County homes to go into foreclosure, said John McClain, senior fellow at George Mason University’s Center for Regional Analysis.
Proximity to D.C. Helps
The good news now is that inventories of unsold homes are shrinking because of the accelerating sales, though homeowners who could afford to have also likely taken their properties off the market, McClain said. In January, 3,346 homes were on the market compared to 5,355 in January, 2007, McClain said. In January, 647 homes sold in Prince William County compared to 312 a year earlier. Home prices, however, fell 34%.One factor that could help Prince William County toward recovery is its proximity to Washington D.C., one of the few local economies with relatively good prospects thanks to its federal government and defense contractor jobs. Woodbridge, Va., in Prince William County, came in at No. 14 in our ranking. Woodbridge sales jumped 32% in the fourth quarter while median home prices dropped 18% to $215,500, according to First American CoreLogic.
The drop in inventory and the rise in sales are “good signs” for Prince William County, McClain said.
“We are at that point with that trend [in Prince William County] where the economics have to kick in,” McClain said. “Prices have to stabilize and then start up again.”
Erick Blackwelder, associate broker with Exit Realty in Woodbridge, said buyers have flocked to the market and have already bought many of the foreclosed homes that were in good shape. The remaining foreclosures are largely “junk,” he said.“It started in April 2008,” Blackwelder said. “It was like all of a sudden, somebody flicked on a light switch and there were buyers galore.”
How many people would find Prince William County an attractive place to relocate after reading an article like this one? “To make matters worse….” seems to say it all.
Well, Prince William County now has numbers on crimes committed and their legal status. Last I heard, they sound under-represented in the statistical findings.
Two completely unsubstantiated sentences, surrounded by statistics that show a remarkable drop in inventory and rise in sales don’t seem to me to be an indication that PWH has a bad reputation.
I don’t normally read BusinessWeek, but is their reporting usually this sloppy? And their refusal to juxtapose the words “illegal” and “immigrant” would lead me to think they were owned by the Washington Post Company, if I didn’t know better. Without any numbers, it just seems like a backhanded slap at the community, which they then go on to report is enticing, not deterring home buyers.
Unfair.
@Alanna, regarding your comment at 16:43 where you stated that Michael’s wife and others (I assume both legal and illegal) come here for opportunity.
My question is, do we have to extend opportunity to everyone? Don’t we, a nation get to decide to whom that opportunity is extended and to whom it is not? Particulary in these economic times, as bad it is may be in other countries, its bad here, so do we “owe” opportunity to illegal or undocumented immigrants?
Michael,
If the undocumented have the power to destroy the world economy, then the common sense response is to do everything possible to make them happy. That way, they’ll use their immigrant voodoo to make us all filthy rich.
Except for you Michael. The immigrants will use their voodoo to fry your computer’s motherboard. They’ll have a little toy computer and stick pins in it. Reason being that though they don’t speak english, even they will grow tired of your mind-numbingly long posts.
“If the undocumented have the power to destroy the world economy, then the common sense response is to do everything possible to make them happy. That way, they’ll use their immigrant voodoo to make us all filthy rich.”
Some intelligent wit underneath all that anger, Mackie. More! More!
LuckyDuck,
I am not saying that we don’t have the right to determine who resides within our borders. I just reject the notion that somehow undocumented people are morally corrupt individuals that are hell bent on destroying this country. After scanning Michael’s comments, it appears he’s more than willing to blame illegals for EVERYTHING under the sun.
It’s frightening to me, to see how everything can be twisted so it’s the fault of this one group of people. I don’t think I have an issue with anybody saying we have to round everybody up and send them back.
If the discussion was phrased in those terms maybe I wouldn’t even have gotten involved in the issue. Where it starts to bother me is when they say, we have this morally corrupt group of disease ridden criminals who have come here to rape, murder and steal the American dream from us. And if we don’t send these people back they will destroy our country.
I don’t like seeing people villified and that is what this is turning into. Center for Immigration Studies wants to blame immigrants for increased global warming because their carbon footprint would have been less if they stayed in their under-developed country. This craziness makes me think that it’s not about someone’s legality anymore. Motivation is something that has me concerned as well.
Lucky Ducky said
This is a typical straw-man argument.
How can anyone talk about these immigrants as if we’re doing them a favor? Where are the sacrifices we’ve made for them?
We gladly let them to do our dirty jobs at a cut rate with no benefits and then blame them for every societal ill.
We’re exploiting them on a mass scale. Just as we exploited the native americans. Just as we exploited the blacks. Just as we exploited the chinese.
With such ample historical precedent, how can anyone fail to see the pattern?
Here’s some perspective:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tcm-2qKR0zE
Mackie,
Anyone who works for someone else at some time or another will probably feel exploited. Exploitation is relative. Do you really think Mexicans would be flocking here if their plight was worse here than in Mexico? No, to them this is a golden opportunity, so don’t feel sorry for them. Uneducated people generally fall to the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder unless of course you’re promoting socialist ideas where we all ‘share the wealth’. The fallacy in that approach is that it totally removes incentive. Just look at all the ghettos in the inner cities. Continuously hand someone something, and they’ll just sit and take with no incentive to improve. Just as providing interpreters removes the incentive to learn English. Desperation is the number one incentive to become proactive, or a criminal. Unfortunately many choose crime as the easy way out. Drug sales being the number one ‘business’.
And if you have a problem with my comment on the ghettos, then explain why uneducated non-English speaking people from Mexico come here with nothing but the shirts on their backs, and for the most part don’t wind up in ghettos as generations of others born here have? That goes for most other immigrants as well.
Exploitation is relative for sure. I see exploitation of immigrants as not paying someone wages after a full days work and knowing you can get by with it because they are out of status and cannot turn your sorry ass in to law enforcement or a better business bureau. That is just cheating someone when they have little or no recourse.
SA, where would we place the barrio in the grand scheme of things? Is that like little Italy or Chinatown in large cities? (or any city that had a large immigrant population) Is Adams Morgan technically a barrio or did it used to be? Is there a difference in west coast and east coast definition of barrio? Does a place become a barrio because of language, ethnicity, or country of origin of most of its inhabitants?
Alanna, I am not blaming social ills on illegal workers under my statement. I just disagree with the way I read your contention that we or America, owes everyone an opportunity to come here for the betterment of themselves and/or their children. I don’t believe we do.
Wackie Mackie, if the opportunities were so scarce here and living conditions so horrible and worse than what was left behind, why do people still come here illegally? Try to answer that in a rational, non-racist manner if you can.
YankeeForever – In regards to your question about Business Week – I can only say that articles I’ve read in there on companies I know a lot about, including one I worked at for many years (IBM) are highly inaccuarate and biased at times, just for the sake of headlines. Then again, as in any news outlet – don’t believe everything you read in the news. I’m not saying all their articles are inaccuarate or biased, but I’ve seen it in ones I know enough about the company they report on. That being said, good luck in finding a news publication that isn’t biased or inaccuarate in some way. There is hardly any such thing as factual news reporting these days.
Who ordered the Michael “spam sandwiches”?
I think the fact that Prince William even came up in the article speaks volumes.
Lucky Ducky said
Who said anything about ‘owed’? How does ‘owing’ have anything to do with it?
Maybe if we just leave them alone (instead of inventing some false grievance over ‘owing’ something) the situation will work itself out in the end, just like it always has.
Mackie, I agree.
That said, we don’t have to take in more immigrants, but morally, we need to assist the (non-criminal) ones who are here.
Per usual, I screwed up the block quote. The quote is from Mackie, not Lucky.
MH,
Relax, I was actually complimenting immigrants on making something of their lives after having started with nothing. Please reread.
“Many of those immigrants who moved to neighboring Fairfax County allowed their Prince William County homes to go into foreclosure, said John McClain”…
John may want to retract this statement since Fairfax just entered into a new ICE program to identify and remove criminal illegal immigrants. According to his logic they will now be moving away from Fairfax and Fairfax will soon have a ‘BAAAAD Reputation’.
People say they come here for opportunity for themselves and their children. We, as a nation, are under no obligation to provide that to the entire world or those that border our country. Alanna alluded to people coming here for opportunities, well, its not open season for anyone to enter. This nation has the right to chose who enters, not citizens of other nations simply deciding they want to come and stay.
Oh, by the way, the situation will not “work itself out”..thats how we got here in the first place. Millions of undocumented/illegal immigrants, a disheveled immigration system and political cowards in Washington. All by doing nothing. More of nothing will solve, surprise, nothing.
Oops I meant #5
SA, I was not taking issue with what you said. NO need for me to relax. I was talking about exploitation and then just exchanging conversation with you. I do recognize that you were complimenting immigrants.
Yank, what do you feel was so offensive or sloppy about the business Week article?
Do we have a bad rep? No.
“Making matters worse, a controversial law in Prince William County that allowed police officers to enforce immigration laws helped drive out many of the Central American immigrants who came in to work on building the new homes during the boom. Many of those immigrants who moved to neighboring Fairfax County allowed their Prince William County homes to go into foreclosure”
Moon-howler, these are my objections:
In a nationwide and worldwide recession, how can anyone make a statement like this without providing the numbers to back it up?
Not all of the foreclosed homes were owned by “Central Americans.” Weren’t any of the residents “South Americans”? Some numbers, please. Plenty of people simply bought way more house than they could reasonably afford, some defaulting even before they made the first payment on the loan.
The Resolution, with all of its faults, was targeted towards illegal immigrants, not simply “immigrants,” and it ended up being fairly gutted in the end, anyway.
And how do we separate the people who left allegedly out of fear of the resolution or because jobs were drying up quickly?
I tried very hard to look at the article from the point of view of someone not familiar with PWC. A major, reputable publication shouldn’t publish such a speculative statement, because it looks a whole lot like political slant.
“I tried very hard to look at the article from the point of view of someone not familiar with PWC. A major, reputable publication shouldn’t publish such a speculative statement, because it looks a whole lot like political slant.”
How can you say that? Political slant in a news article. It simply does not happen. We all know that there is no bias in the news.
Sorry, PWC Resident, I realized I was holding BusinessWeek to the high investigative-journalism standard of the Washington Post.
LOL
Thank you Yank, for pointing those discrepancies out and for elaborating on your gripe with the article.
I felt a lot of it was not accurate also but I also felt that much of why it was inaccurate was because of perception of our area. Even living here, I am not really sure exactly what the Resolution now says.
Absolutely those homes weren’t all owned by Central Americans. Some were from Central American and some were from Mexico, a part of North America. I don’t think we will ever know for certain why people left or how many left as a result of the resolution. I think it is evident from the fact our area was hit so much harder that the Resolution has some part in it, although I do belive to say all would be a serious misrepresentation also.
I think we got so much negative publicity back when the Resolution was being talked about and spotlighted by many of the cable news channels and special interest groups. I wish we could quantify this information. We cannot. So we are left with perception being reality.
Alanna, I don’t think you understand a word of what I am saying.
I’m not saying any “illegal” immigrant is “immoral” because they are illegal. I’m simply saying they are “illegal”. That means law-breaking, with a law enforcement penalty attached if they get caught.
“illegal” immmigrants become “immoral” we they defraud the rest of us, purchase “illegal” mortgages using fraudulent documents and fraudulent report, that causes and ENTIRE mortgage banking system to collapse, and 4.5 million people to lose jobs.
THAT IS IMMORAL.
Do none of you give a damn about our LAWS? It appears that way.
Are all our social and economic ills attributable to undocumented people?
No Alanna, I am not unreasonable, unlike some of you I try to remain unbiased and focus on the truth as much as possible.
The facts are however that “illegal” immigrants cause a LOT of “illegal” damage on our communities, WAY MORE THAN LEGAL IMMIGRANTS.
I remain focused on the DAMAGE they cause and their illegal behaviors that I want stopped, so it no longer hurts the rest of us.
It is my impression that you and others here do not CARE that “illegal” people hurt other people in significant ways.
Moon-howler, I think you have made a fair assessment of the situation.
Moonhowler, the resolution has changed very LITTLE in its original intent, the changes made to mandate illegal alien status verification were splitting hairs.
The resolution still checks status of “illegal” aliens, it just leaves the decision of that check up to the suspicions of the officers.
Now tell me what makes a “suspicious” illegal alien? There are NO STANDARDS….
Driving without a license perhaps, claiming they can’t understand what you are saying?, Not having any ID on them, having bumper stickers from other countries plastered all over? Asking them how long they have been in the country?
Granted you and I could go intentionally do the same thing and no one would know, but we could also intentionally put cocain in our cars and pretend we won’t get caught because someone “might” profile us as a potential drug smuggler, especially if we “behave” like a drug smuggler.
This is why I am all for MANDATORY National ID. If you ain’t got it, you ain’t allowed to be here, that simple.
Sir, Mam…show be your national ID card.
What card officer? I don’t know what that is….
Moonhowler is usually fair and truthful. Thats why I enjoy our discussions, she is reasonable and tries to understand the truth, sometimes the only one here who does, without a biased opinion first.
Alanna, I would not say that “illegal” immigrants are a small percentage of our population. There are 306 million people in the US. In 25 years we’ve had some 35 Million (12% of the current population) cross into our borders and most of those have become permanent residents, of very low income and low skill levels they originally brought with them. Some have improved their lives, but most have decreased the standard of living of the communities they moved into significantly. Today there are an estimated 12-15 million “illegal” immigrants or 4.9 % of the nation’s legal people. That is 3 times the number of foreclosed homes (4.5 million) in the country that caused our global economic collapse, and 3 times the number of defaulted BAD loans. No one knows WHO IS “illegal” because we have decided NOT TO ASK THEM ON THE CENSUS, if they are “illegal” or not, and we refuse to issue national ID cards to people so we can identify who does not have a card, find those who are here and deport them.
Hello, you can’t get a citizenship in 4 months. The average wait for immediate family members (sons, daughters, etc) is 1.8 months to get a green card. For related family over 21 2-3 years, for married couples 1.5 months, then 5 years for citizenship. The issue is you cannot have commited any crimes or previously been “illegal” you must come into the system clean and intentionally following the law. Lawyers recommend you remain in your own country until the documentation is approved for fastest response and minimum time.
In rare cases overstaying visas, you may still get married and still pass scrutiny for a green card, but it is a LOT tougher and takes a lot longer, I know because that is my situation.
Sorry, no national ID card, Michael. I don’t like it. It’s bad enough that I have to constantly guard my SSN from everyone and anyone who feels entitled to it, like my dentist(!) Sorry, but I have a valid insurance card which gives them all the info they need, and they demand payment up front anyway, so I simply refuse to give it out. You had better believe that any kind of national id card would be embedded with all kinds of info about you that you would not want to fall into the wrong hands. No thanks.
Do you give your SSN to businesses?, to schools? to your bank?, do you give it to your credit card company? Your employer? your tax return, when the government asks for it? Do you have it on your drivers’ license? (most now do not). Did you used to put it on your bank statements?, checks?
Why did you trust so many people then? and why do you trust these institutions now?
National ID would be “encrypted” with AES encryption, the same high level encryption the US government and CIA use. AES is “un-breakable” not in a billion years. National ID would be third party verified, using a technique that requires a three-way secret (you, the verifier and the party yo give it to), only you would know the secret to this and only you could provide the partial key to unlock it. No-one can read it with a reader, unless you give them the key.
It is significantly BETTER and more secure than your 9-digit, in the clear, non-thrid party verifiable, man in the middle exploitable, spoofable, copyable SSN number.
There is SO MUCH mis-information about this spun by complete conspiracy people that have no facts about the relative secuity of SSN and National ID.
With national ID there would be no more document fraud, and no more account theft by third parties, credit card theft, ID theft would be non-existant, the card would not work for them, because they would not have the secret unless you give it to them, and that secret is a partial secret and not a complete secret, so you are the only one who has your part.
I would trust it in a heartbeat. Its even better than a pin number on your credit card and even better ID than your driver’s license (which can be copied, or your passport (which can be copied).
Alanna,
12.5 million Illegals in the US is also not a small number compared to the number of people who have list jobs as a result of the Illegal” immigrant defaults and foreclosures.
4.5 million people have lost thier jobs recently (8.6 %) of the people in the nation. 12.5 million illegals is 3 times that number, and are stealing at least 8 more million jobs from people who are going to lose jobs in the next 2 years.
If we want to put 4.5 people instantly back to work, we can deport 12-15 million “illegals” and create 8-15 million new jobs which is 11.5 million more jobs than the 500,000 new jobs the 780 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment act is supposed to create.
4.5 million people would not have lost their jobs in the first place.
That should make legal residents extremely angry, when you also consider the number of jobs we outsource, while 4.5 million people in this country are out of work, at least 8-11 million “illegal” immigrants are working and will GET the bulk of the ecomomic stimulus money, not RURAL AMERICA.
And I am not talking about the 35 million formerly “illegal” immigrants who are also working.
Our bad reputation came from all the publicity, and the publicity was sought out by three people: Corey Stewart, Greg Letiecq, and John Stirrup.
And no, our bad reputation didn’t start when Chief Deane quietly began working with ICE in 2006. Did any of you hear about it then? That’s what I thought.
You see Chief Deane is not a big mouth politician like Corey Stewart. Chief Deane is not a wild-eyed-screaming-like-a-rock-band-groupie-at-the-GOP-convention-on-national television partisan like John Stirrup. Chief Deane began working with ICE back when our Citizen Satisfaction Survey showed 3 percent of the county was worried about illegal immigration. For him, it was a matter of good police work.
But all that changed with The Immigration Resolution being advertised on Corey Stewart’s reelection bill boards, and in the post cards he sent to voters using taxpayer money. That’s when the “probable cause” approach to racial profiling was jammed down our throats as part of a political strategy with no goal other than winning an election or two, and no research or planning for how to pay for it, or how it would impact the county.
That is why we have the bad reputation. Our Chairman, his bug-eyed sidekick, and his nativist hate blogger made it their soul purpose in life. Now THEY have a reputation that is a lot worse than the rest of the county. Our county’s reputation is on the mend. Those three will go down as being on the wrong side of history.
Yankee,
What exactly is this personal ‘information’ about you that you are afraid would be included on a proposed National ID card? I see this argument all the time, but I can’t think of what personal information, except financial info, that people are referring to. What is the worst that could happen if someone did have your SSN? I know everyone is super sensitive about it, so please give me some details.
Trying out the “quote button” so I hope it comes out all right. Yankee, I saw with some humor the following article in today’s Post.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/11/AR2009031101499.html?hpid=topnews
the graphic attached to the article only indentified some of the earmarks and they were all from Republicans. So we have to assume that although 60% of the earmarks were from Democrats, it was the ones by Republicans that were bad.
SA, I have the same questions that you do. Why is this card supposedly so awful?
A PW County Resident, I saw that this morning and thought I had stumbled onto the “Onion” website. I looked at the comments where one person said Obama is like an alcoholic with earmarks–“just one more drink and then I’ll stop forever.”
Mackie…I’m confused. On your last post you suggested leaving immigrants alone and letting the situation work it’s way out. Yet…yet…yet you are one that constantly harps on the misnomer “people of color”, and NOW we’re exploiting them? As if scads of immigrants before them were not exploited? Um…Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire? Little WHITE boys under the age of ten working coal mines in PA? Do you easily recline in your best chair and not for one instance realize that there were many colorless (white to you) children working in dangerous situations? Have you not once realized that slavery surpassed blacks and moved on to white women and children? So tell me Mackie how did it all work out for the poor eastern European children? Dang…how did they jump up on those people “of color”? Maybe being colorless helped.
Are we going down for BAAAAD?
-Lady with two children flips SUV on Stonewall Rd. after one of
her tires hits an open manhole – the cover had been flown open
by a sewer backup.
-Once again, PWC police have busted a prostitution ring near
Manassas. (Why aren’t we taxing these people?).
-A major grocery store in Woodbrige is closed – due to rats.
Yep, BAAAAD PWC and that is even before you get to Corey, Greg L.
and gang — the real local rodents.