(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on July 25, 2013. Click here to read the entire piece.)
Something special must be happening in Lancaster, California, a small town of 155,000 people about 70 miles north of Los Angeles. After finding a thriving land development project in Lancaster, American Public Media’s Marketplace returned to the city (or maybe they never left!?) to do another story on the town’s economy. What they found encouraged me to write this quick summary as a follow-up to “California Soon To Experience A New Construction Boom.”
Jack Cole is CEO of Lance Camper, a company that has employed him since 1966 (one year after its founding). Lance Camper makes truck campers and travel trailers that can cost as much as $20,000. The recession forced Cole to cut his workforce from 460 to 120, a massive 74% reduction. Now, Cole is back up to 360 employees, buying equipment, and his customers are buying even as interest rates have increased. This tripling in the workforce and increased economic activity can help explain at least in part why the developers in Lancaster can be so optimistic that they will soon sell out of the 44 homes under construction. Cole understandably calls the recovery “real.”
With some optimism on the brain, let’s take a look at some other related positive signs for California’s economy:
Here is what Meritage Homes (MTH) had to say about the California market in its July 24th earnings conference call (quotes from Seeking Alpha transcripts)… {snip}
Source: FreeStockCharts.com
Be careful out there!
(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on July 25, 2013. Click here to read the entire piece.)
Full disclosure: no positions