How is Iowa doing? (Des Moines, Cedar Rapids: for sale, real estate, apartment)

[MJ1986]

How is Iowa doing in the bad economy? Anything to note?

[Northern Traveler]

to be honest, all i've noticed is construction *slowed* around here. maybe i'm missing something

[pinetar10]

I would not think Iowa would be doing too bad because Iowa never saw the big boom in housing prices like much of the country, so they are not seeing the bust either. I live in PA, and it's similar here. Personally, I have not been affected at all and neither have many people from around here since we never saw a big boom in the past few years. No boom, no bust

[UW Badgers]

Actually, since the big flood in June, housing seems to be pretty good. I've seen several homes in my area in Cedar Rapids go up for sale and within 2 weeks they are sold. A lot of people lost their home and need to start over and I guess there are people relocating that need homes too. Houses in our area(out of the flood zone)are flying off the market. We've acually debated about selling our home knowing it wouldn't be on the market long and going into an apartment since we won't be living here much longer.

[Luke9686]

Everybody I know back home (Des Moines) is doing fine. From what I hear they aren't any worse than they ever were. I did go onto a couple of the real estate websites for the area and noticed homes in the suburbs are MUCH cheaper than a few years ago. I saw decent houses in Urbandale, Altoona, etc for less than $150K.

[teamplayer]

Iowa is going to be OK by worldwide standards. Remember the astronomical crop prices this past summer? It's like the state struck oil.

[hoohoohaa13]

Originally Posted by teamplayer

Iowa is going to be OK by worldwide standards. Remember the astronomical crop prices this past summer? It's like the state struck oil.

Watch out, though. Ethanol subsidies are in jeopardy of being cancelled. The high prices of corn can't be sustained with other plantings. I would imagine this would change the economical landscape, although perhaps not very dramatically for Iowa.

[pepe1]

Hopefully this statement won't cause this whole thread to become to politically charged...

But McCain has explicitly said he would end ethanol subsidies. That move would really hurt Iowa's economy...

[hoohoohaa13]

Originally Posted by pepe1

Hopefully this statement won't cause this whole thread to become to politically charged...

But McCain has explicitly said he would end ethanol subsidies. That move would really hurt Iowa's economy...

And I'm certainly not trying to insert politics in any of this. As a catering company owner, my food costs on items dealing directly with corn (corn, chicken and beef because of feed, etc..) have grown at an astronomical rate. While I would ideally like to live in Iowa, business wise I don't want to be paying prices as high as they are due to subsidies that, personally, I don't see a return on the investment made. Just my 2 cents (but with the dollar the way it has been, maybe it's only 1 cent?!?!)