Tell us about the local economy . . .
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Tell us about the local economy . . .
| Thu, 02-19-2009 - 9:20am |
I know this really doesn't apply to me (as I live in Canada) but I noticed from another thread ladies were making suggestions about moving to different areas of the US. I thought it may be helpful for anyone considering a

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On the plus side, housing here is very reasonable. We live outside of the city, and we purchased our house for $150,000 (2000 sq ft, 180 ft deep lot). Even in the city, housing is very reasonable, although you wouldn't be able to get that much property without paying an arm and a leg. Taxes are really reasonable here, too. Our property taxes are only about $1400 per year. And with the economy, there are lots of people looking to sell their homes, so a good deal is to be had!
Also, I have been pretty impressed with our local government (there's something I don't say often). They have been working really hard to attract business and events to stimulate our economy. As well, despite the poor economy they are moving ahead with infra-structure plans that will create jobs should they come into fruition. Also, City workers are cutting costs, without cutting jobs.
I live in Louisville, Kentucky. If you are in the medical field this is I believe a great place to work. Pays good in the medical field and hospitals are building on all the time.
I live in the Bay Area (CA) and the cost of living is high.
State employess are refusing to pay part of their health insurance in my opinion they should be lucky they have a job that offers health insurance period. Lay offs are happening pretty much every day. Thank god I work in healthcare so where ever I go I am pretty much safe as far as work goes.
Some businesses are just closing doors without letting employees know they are to be out of a job.
So if anyone plans on moving to Little Rhody I wouldn't recommend it. It is a beautiful state, but it is so corrupt.
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lulu,
I grew up in RI and I love that state. (I live in Chicago now.)
I am going back in April for a wedding. I can't WAIT to be on the East Coast again. Yes, it truly is a beautiful state.
I have lived here all of my life, I would love to move up north but all my family is here. I do love the state but I can't stand the politics.
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Grew up in Warwick. Went to school at OLM (Our Lady of Mercy.)
My dad moved our family there b/c he had a job in Cranston when I was young. We lived there 6 years and moved back to Illinois where all my family is from. I have always loved loved loved living out there. I feel its where I was most at "home" in my life. Probably b/c I was young and innocent and had no worries.
I can't WAIT to go back and visit. Newport Creamery here I come!
I live in Georgia - we live right about in the middle of state - we are about equal distance to the mountains and to the beach.
I live in Manchester, New Hampshire. We currently do not know anyone who's lost their job yet. We have a lot of friends in sales. Pharmaceutical and medical equipment and who knows how their jobs will fare. I know there were some layoffs at a few of their companies, but so far they have managed to avoid losing their jobs. My husband works for Hood and delivers milk and his job seems secure at the moment. They are even hiring in the warehouse. FIL actually just got a new job. He's in maintenance. And none of my piano students have mentioned not being able to afford the lessons yet. Overall, the layoffs here haven't been huge. But the one thing I have noticed is the businesses that are closing. I just went to the mall last week and they closed the McDonalds! Mcdonalds!?!? I couldn't believe it. They also closed the pizza place. A few more stores have shut down as well, but I don't remember their names. Our main street is going to look a lot different. The tweeter store, a huge, godawful, ugly building is closed now. And right across the street, Circuit City is going to be closing. The car dealerships are doing their best to sell cars. Flags and sale signs all over the place. The hummer dealership is now a used car dealership, but I think that was a consequence of those tremendous gas prices last year.
So the layoffs are slowly coming. The housing prices here have fallen, but they seem to be holding steady. We bought our place for 163 and now could sell it for around 150. Not too bad of a drop and we'd break even on our loan at least. Houses are staying on the market for a lot longer though. There's this beautiful house down the street and it's been on the market for at least 9 months. They want way too much for it though at 290. Our condo units still sell, although it takes awhile...a year at least!
I'm in Dayton, OH - big GM town. The economy is the pits here.
Delphi (GM's Truck & Bus Group supplier) started closing their operations a couple of years ago, so the downturn has been here a while. The events of this past fall just sealed the nail in Dayton's coffin. GM Truck & Bus (Which made SUVs) shut down the day before Christmas.
Around the same time, DHL announced they were selling off their division to UPS. There is a big DHL hub outside of Dayton that employs 8000 people, and then about 1000 are employed by ABX which supplies DHL. Most of those jobs were eliminated last year, and the rest will be gone this year. And we're not talking about low-level freight employees. We're talking about pilots and jet mechanics and upper level airline executives who are out of jobs.
The bank department for which I used to work -private/High Net Worth banking, was altogether eliminated last year. The market for that here is gone.
I now work in the health care industry, and while that's normally considered a safe bet, I see the ramifications of the GM closure every day in my job. I had an upswing of patients scrambling to get their last appointments and prescriptions refilled before their insurance ran out. Now I have situations where my doctors all have multiple appointment openings because patients cancel or no-show due to lack of insurance. Specialists who normally had 2-week to 1-month waits now can often fit a patient in the same day. The ripple of unemployment runs deep.
The value of our house dropped $35,000 since we bought it in 2007, but yet our property taxes keep jumping up, up, up. The prices used to be overinflated here, but they've come down a lot and are quite a buy now. But the high property taxes are keeping people from buying the houses in our neighborhood. Two of the houses for sale here have been on the market since we moved in almost 2 years ago, and we wouldn't have moved here if it weren't for my DH's job, but it's a nice area so we just deal. LOL
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