Foreclosures Have Many Faces as Recession Grips the Nation
Foreclosures are not just numbers and hot debates but the subsequent recession has exposed its many faces. The recession has led to massive loss of jobs, slowdown in manufacturing, fall in sales and increase in more foreclosures. Each one has been affected in a different way – whether good, bad or middling.
Ena Melendez runs a cleaning service and with the crisis in the real estate she has lost 27 of her regular clients. Her earnings have fallen from $5,000 to $4,000 since the beginning of this year. On an average she has per month 133 clients but as yet has not signed up for any long term agreements. The majority of her clients are owners of houses but she also does work for a couple of offices and real estate firms. She cleans the empty houses before these are displayed to potential buyers.
Fifty two year Melendez said that she has four employees who are full time hands but she had to dismiss two part time helpers in the early part of this year. To make up for the loss she has been incurring, Melendez has been letting out a room and charges $800 for it per month. The room is in her 1,299 sq ft house in Lakewood.
Lately things are beginning to look up she said, “Things are a little better now. I’m getting some new customers, but they are one-time customers. I need regular customers.”
In the markets that have been worst hit by the foreclosure crisis in places like California the need for residential cleaning has fallen said Kristi Mailloux of Molly Maid – a home cleaning servicing firm.
Across the country the economy is picking up. Residential cleaning is an industry worth $3 billion to $4 billion. It is expected to grow by 17% through 2014 as per the findings of USA Department of Commerce.
In 2008 Molly Maid saw a 5% increase in sales in comparison to 2007. Mailloux said, “California and the Northeast are relatively flat in growth; however, Denver, Texas and some Southwest markets are still growing for us. Busy people still need our services. That’s one of the last things they want to give up.”
Ernie Hartong of Association of Residential Cleaning Services agreed with these views. He said, “Clients don’t view hiring a cleaning service as a luxury. People don’t want to spend time cleaning their house. They want to spend it with their kids and husband or wife.”
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