The stock market has been tanking for months. The question regarding a recession is no longer if but how long. People are losing their jobs and their homes.

No wonder then that there seems to be a sense of resignation among Americans that times are tough and likely to get tougher.

Just ask the local “repo man.”

“When times are good and I’m repoing someone’s car, it can be very difficult. Now, it’s not as embarrassing because maybe the guy’s neighbor is having just as tough a time as he is,” said Dennis Brubaker, the 39-year-old owner of Professional Recovery Services in Lake Placid, Fla.

Brubaker contracts with banks, credit unions and other financial services companies to retrieve items purchased through financing agreements.

When the monthly payments stop getting paid, a phenomenon occurring all over the country on items ranging from homes, to boats, to cars, and everything in between, Brubaker and “repo men” like him are sent out on the trail.

Cars make up the bulk of the repo man’s workload (10 to 1 in Brubaker’s case). Consider these numbers, culled from various credit and auto industry sources: total U.S. auto loans rose to $772 billion in 2008, up from $282 billion in 1998; the rate of auto loan defaults reached a 10-year high earlier this year, rising to 3.4%; auto repos are up 33% this decade, hitting 1.65 million in 2007.

It’s easy to see why Brubaker’s business is up markedly since the economy turned sour. He said he’s likely to see his gross revenues jump 30% to 40% this year over last year. In fact, times are so flush he’s had to buy another $50,000 tow truck and hire another employee.

Something else that’s changed since the U.S. housing bubble burst, taking the economy down with it, has been the demeanor of many of his targets when Brubaker finally catches up with them.

But maybe that’s to be expected, he said.

“It’s been different. I’ve had a lot less violent confrontations. What I’ve had is quite a few circumstances where there’s been no anger at all, just a sense of resignation,” said Brubaker.

Lake Placid is in Central Florida, about an hour south of Orlando. The area has been hard hit by every aspect of the economic downturn. People are making less money so they’re cutting back on unnecessary expenses. Places like restaurants and retail outlets, where discretionary money is spent, are laying people off.

In September, Florida had the second highest foreclosure rate in America, trailing only Nevada, according to foreclosure listing service RealtyTrac Inc.

All of this has dramatically changed the dynamics of how Brubaker goes about his business. He’ll make more money this year, but he’s going to earn it.

“I’m getting more accounts because the economy is bad. People are getting laid off and the first thing to go is usually the extra car,” he said.

The problem is that people have gotten harder to find. Layoffs lead to foreclosures, and when people foreclose they move out of their homes and condominiums.

“We’re finding a lot of vacant homes, a lot of empty apartments. A lot of the people we’re looking for have moved. In an unstable economy, people move around a lot,” said Brubaker.

A lot of younger targets who are delinquent on car payments, for instance, have moved back in with their parents. They’re fairly easy to find.

Many others, however, have moved in with friends, or are essentially living from couch to couch. Still others have moved up to Orlando looking for work.

These are the ones who make Brubaker’s job difficult.

“We have to do a lot of investigative work just to find an automobile,” he said.

Another shift has been in requests by banks to retrieve luxury items, such as expensive motor homes, a popular item in retiree-haven Florida.

“People are letting go of luxury items. They don’t have room for luxury in their wallets,” said Brubaker.
As for the motor homes, Brubaker said lots of owners are simply calling their banks and telling them they can no longer afford the payments.

“They’ve just been turning them in. People are saying I need to make my rent, not this damn motor home payment,” he said.

Then there are the targets, realistic and contrite in their payment delinquency, who politely hand over their car keys.

In good times, Brubaker explained, people resent the idea of the “repo man” coming to take away their car. That raise or better job is right around the corner -- or so the thinking goes.

But not in times like these when just about everyone is suffering.

“People just want their stuff back,” said Brubaker, and they’re thankful when Brubaker and his staff return a child’s car seat or a favorite jacket from inside a car that’s about to be repossessed.

These days, we’re thankful for small favors.