The vacant lots and closed "Rite Aid" are an unrecognizable sign to me. And the potholed roads are an exaggeration. There has been a lot of road construction this year, more than usual, and a lot of roads are brand new. There are very few vacant places of business. New places like Target and Subway are always opening new locations and places like Walmart are rebuilding and expanding current ones. I've also seen a big, new office building being built not far from Ridge Pike. And the retail parking lots are all crowded on the weekends.
You want to see more of what he's describing, go to northeastern PA. That is an area in decline with vacant properties and bad roads. Montgomery and other suburban Philly counties are the most economically thriving in the state. I believe Montgomery, Chester and Bucks are among the richest counties in the nation.
Key statement in his article:
Not every house looks this way, but far more than you would think when viewing the overall demographics for Montgomery County.
It's all relative. He's selectively picking and choosing what he wants to tell you. They're a small amount of examples but as far as he's concerned, they're "far more than you would think." He is right that Norristown is the dump of Montgomery Country, but everyone knows that. It always has been. Yes, there's been a housing decline and general economic decline in the last 4 years. As far as I can tell, we are tracking along on a very average plane right along with the national statistics. There was no above-average collapse here. But it does feel like we're simply stagnating now, rather than recovering.
Here in Montgomery Co. OH where we have lost 5Fortune 500 companies in five years, we see tons of new building, especially mini-mansions of $500k to $1.5 m. I have no idea who is buying these but they are selling.
Not according to the numbers. Of the five counties around Philly, only Chester is really below the state average for unemployment and only Chester has positive economic growth. Philly and Delaware are in the can. Montgomery and Bucks are holding at around the average. Some of Chester's good numbers are coming from the very good agricultural economy in Lancaster, Lebanon and Berks. In overall trends, the Philadelphia area is not regarded as a future area for economic growth in PA.
That all said, I'm very skeptical of these pictures and testimonial, and agree with you that things aren't really that bad in Southeastern PA. You wanna see bad, take a sharp right at Toledo, OH and head up I-75 toward Detroit.