Elk Grove home foreclosure ads hold steady

Display ads trend down going into important Holiday season





Foreclosure ads published in the Elk Grove Citizen have held steady since our last update two weeks ago.

In light of the ensuing collapse of the credit and stock market there are a couple ways to interpret this. With the $700 billion Wall Street bail-out package in the wings, beneficiaries may intentionally slow the processing of foreclosures hoping for buy-outs or other government programs.

Perhaps the number of homes available for foreclosure in Elk Grove has reached its peak and the growth rate will decline, i.e., the majority of homes susceptible to foreclosure have already been processed or are in the process.

With regards to display advertising, there has been a slight downward bias moving into the all important Holiday season. As most of the advertisers in The Citizen are local retailers that don't have the huge marketing budgets of Wal-Mart or the other national chains that dominate the local retail scene, this might be an indication that our locally owned retailers are feeling uncertain and holding back on advertising.

The slowing retail scene, not withstanding General Growth Properties debacle with the Elk Grove Promenade, also has implications for the City of Elk Grove. Lower retail sales means less tax revenue flowing into city coffers.

Additionally, although we don't track it, we have observed that the classified section of The Citizen has shrunk considerable since we started this report. While there is no doubt that the economic crisis is killing consumer confidence, The Citizen's apparent decline in classified advertising revenues may be more a function of this revenue stream migrating to free internet sites like Craigslist.