The signs seem to be everywhere: We are becoming a more frugal nation that needs to be fed deals and discounts as we plow through increasingly difficult financial times.

According to a new report by the Associated Press, frugality is the now the new norm in America and it stems from necessity. We are working less and earning less while the costs of food, schooling and housing remain pressing obligations we struggle to meet. So everyone seems to be cutting back across the board – white collar, blue collar, affluent, illegal.

The report finds consumer spending will never return to pre-recession levels, unlike what we witnessed after all other recessions since World War II when thriftiness took a back seat to the demand for new cars and shiny goods.

But this recession has taken such a huge bite out of spending and our old ways, Baby Boomers are unlikely to return to the affluenza that got us here in the first place. While the new frugality is good for the family budget and the planet, it is hurting the national economy including everyone associated with the housing market (sellers, contractors, laborers, suppliers) as well as gardeners, handymen and domestics.

And anyone who hangs at the local mall has seen how quiet things are, as shoppers buy what they need and buy it on sale rather than loading up on seasonal items they can do without.

The auto industry has seen a huge decline, from sales of cars and trucks averaging 16 million a year in boom times to a recession level of 10 million a year. The result could be further consolidation among auto makers and a loss of new vehicle taxes that aid state and local governments.

The report cites a Gallup survey taken last month which found seven in 10 Americans are cutting weekly expenses consistently through the summer. This is linked to the worst downturn since the Depression with unemployment currently at 9.7 percent and rising to double digits before the end of the year. Those who have jobs are earning less and have lost sizable percentages of their investment nest eggs.

We have always seen frugal behavior in some Americans, those wise enough to save more than they spend, to reuse what they can, to eat leftovers and take public transportation, turn off the lights and the heat and air whenever possible. Without even knowing it, those people are the real deal when it comes to being green. And now as the rest of us jump onto that bandwagon, they can proudly say, “I told you so.”

Image: timparkinson

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Here is another good argument for prefab versus towers.

In southwest Florida, a 32-story, 200-unit condo building has a single tenant, the Vangelakos family of New Jersey, which purchased their $430,000 unit four years ago in the midst of the Fort Myers housing explosion.

According to a report by the Associated Press, the recession has made it tough to be neighborly at the building when there are no neighbors. The family of five is the sole occupier of the Oasis Tower One. When they visit to escape the cold back home, they have their run of the pool, game room and gym, but it’s sometimes scary to be alone in the often darkened tower.

This is not what Victor Vangelakos banked on. The 45-year-old fire captain made a $10,000 down payment and watched an empty lot become the home of an upscale development. But as the report points out, the massive structure, one of many going dark in Florida, symbolizes the foreclosure crisis as an increasing number of residents look for jobs or ways to cut costs.

“The future was going to be southwest Florida,” Vangelakos told A.P., adding he planned to retire and live permanently in the condo.

Apparently, most of the other tenants opted not to close on their contracts. Those that did have transferred to an adjacent building owned by the same company. That building actually has tenants so you aren’t so alone. But Vangelakos says his mortgage lender won’t let him do the same.

“It’s a beautiful building,” said attorney, John Ewing, who is representing 27 others who made deposits on units. “The problem is, it’s a very lonely building.”

Ewing adds that it seems time froze at the building six months ago when the last person signed-in at the front desk located in the lobby.

Will hungry developers keep building towers in the Cape Coral-Fort Myers metropolitan area despite deserted buildings like this one and others? Lee County has some suffered some of the nation’s worst economic stress from foreclosures, unemployment and bankruptcies, according to The Associated Press’ monthly analysis of more than 3,100 U.S. counties.

Perhaps Vegas is next.

Image: Tim Patterson

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