Near my home in Chandler, Arizona there is a neighborhood called Arrowhead Meadows that include a working class block with small town homes. This community has been very much affected by the economic downturn and the immigration laws the State has been implemented, among them the Employer's Sanctions Law and SB1070.
Those laws are seeking "attrition to enforcement" or in other words to get rid of the immigrant working class population that hold the jobs citizens and legal residents do not want to do. This immigrants live in neighborhood like this.
Laws have an effect on the economy and in Arizona this is painfully true. It may be causing a considerable effect in the falling home prices and the low occupancy rate of rental properties all over the State. Read the article by the Arizona Republic here with data on the real state market and the projections for the near future.
I see this neighborhood as a little barometer of the economic situation of the state.
Recently I have been noticing more and more for sale and for rent signs, so I took a walk this afternoon and counted how many steps it took me to find a - For Rent- sign in this particular block.
It is impossible to determined which homes and how many where emptied by the implementation of SB1070 last July the 29th. We can only guess.
This is the finding of my little qualitative research:
First sign - 94 steps
Second sign -130 steps
Third sign -170 steps
Fourth sign -230 steps
Fifth sign -360 steps
Sixth sign -420 steps
Seventh sign -455 steps
Total of steps walked: 522
To see the pictures of the signs and the street please click here
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