In Dallas/Ft Worth I'm seeing two types of flight training (more like hearing it over the radio): Foreigners paying usurious amounts for a Cessna 152 and then returning to their home country or high net worth individuals buying a glass cockpit aircraft and learning to fly in it. I deal with the latter.

In the late 90's I owned a mom and pop school in the Detroit area. Most of my clients were only after a Private and/or Instrument. Their background....autoworkers. Line guys, not skilled trades. These were guys making 80K a year putting on hubcabs. Then spending it learning to fly. Take a look at Trade a Plane and you can see the state of the GA market.

The middle class folks, including those who financed their kids flight training are pretty much drying up. And frankly, I'm getting concerned about the future freedom of even using a small FBO to learn to fly. The potential of user fees and the like is scaring everyone. They've already eliminated written testing centers and chart sales to all but the biggest operators. It's tough to stay in business on training fees alone. As I know, especially in February in Michigan.