I live in Reno, NV, which is mostly a "blue collar" (I hate classifying jobs) town in which there are a lot of contractors. One thing that I've noticed from my uncle's sprinkler fitting business (Future Fire Protection: (775) 626-1878) and my friend's Foundation Drilling/General Contracting company, located in Richmond, CA (east bay area) (Ramos Construction: 510-374-8578) is that it's been hard to find business.
With the housing market how it is, there's not that many houses being built. Don't get me wrong, there is still building going on, but not near as much as during the housing boom. My uncle use to be real busy putting in sprinkler systems in the Reno/Tahoe area, but there just isn't much work going on. Other contractors that I've talked to have said the same thing.
Construction is an industry that is definitely under appreciated. These companies form a reliable base to local economies. When people get money, they spend it, mostly in local places. The parts used also keep hardware retailers (ie: home depot, ACE hardware ,local shops) in business.
This is merely one example of how the housing crisis is eroding our economy from the bottom up and the top down. It's a rough period, but in the long run, it's all cyclical. Other countries are catching up to us, but we're still America. We are a resilient country due to our dynamic nature. We'll come out of this economic issue soon enough. That's the great thing about the market, it runs itself, for the most part, so even if our politicians are messing it up, the private sector can keep is strong.
