You couldn't sell a house.

No one wanted to buy a car.

If you had a job, you counted yourself lucky.

The worst economic downturn in three generations slammed into the Treasure Valley a year ago as the stock market plunged, banks collapsed and 401(k)s dried up. Micron Technology laid off thousands, and businesses were shuttered.

Unemployment rose to 10.2 percent in the Treasure Valley in July, up from 3.6 percent 19 months earlier.

Behind the grim numbers were real people caught in the economic turbulence. Boisean Allison Ashburn was laid off twice in eight months. Andy Rumble's family of five lost a breadwinner when he lost his job at Micron after 19 years.

Others lost their homes.

But despite bad times, many people still hold on to some optimism. Things aren't as bad as they were - or could have been. And many believe things will get better.

TWO LAYOFFS LEAD TO NEW BUSINESS FOR BOISEAN

Employee-employer loyalty doesn't count for much with Allison Ashburn anymore.

In 2006, she went to work for a local company that invested people's money in commercial real estate. She envisioned spending her career there. But in June 2008, she was surprised by being laid off. The company was DBSI, which eventually filed for bankruptcy in the midst of the recession last November.

Ashburn persisted. "I'm a strong enough person that I can take what life gives me and rise above it," she said.

Two weeks later, she landed another job working on special projects for an Eagle real estate investment company as a sales and marketing project manager. That lasted until February, when she was laid off a second time.

This time, she didn't rebound so quickly. She went looking for a job. "There was nothing," she said.

In response, the onetime public school educator began cutting expenses.

She held on to to her 850-square-foot house. But she backed off buying clothes. Weekend trips were gone. She rented movies instead of going to the theater. She planted a garden. She started using her credit cards to make ends meet.

For a while, she tried commission sales. But it took too long for her to build a client base selling Web sites. As she began selling, she also moved more heavily into social networking on Facebook and Twitter. She attended gatherings that brought people together to share their skills and get to know one another.

She helped start a local chapter of Jelly, a gathering of independent business owners who meet every other week.

And Ashburn made a discovery: Boise is full of creative people she might never have met if she had continued to work in an office all day.

Social networking became more than a place to meet people. "I started to market myself that way," she said.

Now, she's a freelance project manager working with three clients. She pays attention to the day-to-day details, makes sure deadlines are met and frees company employees to spend time doing other work.

She's not sure exactly where her new endeavor will take her. She's working on creating a business model that could help guide her into the future.

"My life has completely shot off in a new, more exciting direction," she said. "I thoroughly enjoy working for myself."

WAITING FOR THE CAR BIZ TO PICK UP

The dealership, at 3003 W. Main St. in Boise, moved from Nampa three months ago and hasn't seen one of those good months in quite a while. "The car business is no different than any other business," Myers said. "It's tough times."

Myers deals in cars of about 100,000 miles. Prices range from $2,500 to $10,000. He keeps an inventory of about two dozen automobiles. In this economy, he's seen white-collar professionals coming to him for a vehicle.

But as some economic experts see ever-so-slight signs that the recession is ebbing, Myers says the car business is still in the tank. "If you talk to a used-car dealer and he says business is good, I wouldn't buy a car from him," he said.

Credit is still tough for many of his customers to get, he said. And the government's Cash for Clunkers program, which was aimed at getting old gas-guzzling cars off the road by giving customers super deals for a new ones, only drove up the cost Myers must pay for used cars. The clunkers had to be destroyed under the federal program, cutting into the supply of cars that Myers buys. A car that once fetched $4,500 now costs $6,500, which is nearly the retail price he would put on the car. "I can't afford to buy a car like that," he said.

Myers has other business interests and doesn't rely on his dealership for all of his income. But until people get back to work, home foreclosures ease and the economy stabilizes, Myers doesn't think the car business will return to better days.

"The whole dynamic has changed," he said.

BOISE MAN TURNS JOB LOSS INTO NEW LIFE

When Andy Rumble lost his job at Micron Technology a few months ago, his children had one question: Will we have to move?

The answer was no. The Boisean and his wife, Ami, had suspected a layoff might be coming and they prepared for it. In the weeks leading up to the company's announcement, the Rumbles pored over their budget. They looked at costs they could cut - $700 a month in day care, for example. They took stock of their own finances and the income they could expect from Ami's job. And they came up with a plan for what to do to survive.

When Rumble lost his job after 19 years at the company, he cashed in his 401(k) and used his severance pay and a federal grant for education to re-invent his life.

The couple reduced their debt. "We paid off some credit cards that eat at you," Rumble said.

Now Rumble is a college student and stay-at-home dad. In the afternoon, he's home when his two school-age children, ages 11 and 7, get home. Sometimes all three of them do homework together.

The couple estimates their finances will carry them at least three years.

Along the way, life has become simpler. One of the family's cars, an 11-year old Dodge Caravan, will be pressed into service for more years than it might have otherwise. A family tradition of "pizza paydays," buying a pizza on the day the paycheck comes, is gone.

But on the upside, "Andy and I have more time together," Ami Rumble said.

"I probably feel more optimistic now than I did five years ago," she said. "We really have a big future. Andy is getting an education."

HOMEOWNER PULLS HERSELF FROM UNDER HOUSE

She and a one-time friend split the cost. They made a home for her daughters and some other relatives. Eventually they installed an above-ground pool.

"I loved my house," Cooper, 39, said.

But then she and her friend parted ways. Cooper was laid off as an administrative assistant for a timber company. Even though her lender tried to work with her in 2006-2007 by lowering her mortgage payments, she couldn't make ends meet. She had enough money for utilities and food, but not the $869-a-month house payment.

It's not that she didn't try. She sold her RV and her four-wheeled ATVs. "I sold everything," she said.

With foreclosure looming, she put the house on the market. No response. The 1,658-square-foot, four-bedroom home drew little interest in the cooling-off housing market. A real estate agent staged an open house. No one showed up.

In July 2008 she took the house off the market. The home she loved had become a burden. "I started to hate the house," she said.

That's when a real estate agent approached her about a short sale, in which the lender agrees to sell the house for less than its loan value and forgive the rest of the debt.

She put the house back on the market last spring. Once word got out that her house was up for a short sale, Cooper started getting prospective buyers. The house, which had been valued at $269,000, sold for $157,000 in July.

"It was not hard to walk away," Cooper said.

Today she lives in a three-bedroom apartment in Boise that she shares with one of her daughters and another friend. She works as an administrative assistant for a company that handles shipping and receiving for Hewlett Packard Co. Her paycheck gives her enough to cover her share of the rent - about $450 - with some left over.

And she doesn't have to worry about a house.

"I don't have to mow," she said. "I don't have to weed."

In a few years, she said, she may venture into the housing market again.

"I do miss the house itself," she said.