Colin Dunn
Supporting Actor
Thanks for all the suggestions. It looks like several Midwestern cities still need tech people, based on what I've seen in this thread - especially KC and Omaha. I keep hearing that Texas (except Austin) hasn't been hurt as badly as other parts of the country in this recession, though it's difficult for me to know...
Unfortunately, it looks like several Western states (Colorado, Utah, Oregon, Washington, California) have yet to recover from the late '90s bubble. Housing costs AND unemployment are sky-high - a murderous combination.
Basically, what I'm looking for is an area that the late '90s Internet bubble missed entirely. The bubble hit hardest in cities that Gen-Xers (myself included) considered to be really "hip" or "cool" - the Bay Area, Austin, Boulder, etc.
With the tech bubble came a tremendous run-up in real-estate prices that will take a generation to correct. The historical rate of real-estate appreciation is around 4-7% annually, but places like Salt Lake, Denver, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Portland (OR), and the SF Bay Area were experiencing 30-40% ANNUAL appreciation. For those of you who haven't seen this kind of inflation - home prices were rising $10,000 per MONTH. Every time you'd turn your back in Denver, all the builders would paint over their signs with higher prices. Few things are as horrifying to a home buyer as seeing seeing entry-level prices in a subdivison run up from $140,000 to $220,000 in a matter of weeks!!!
When it comes to my criteria, low housing costs and a favorable labor market are most important to me. My next home doesn't need to be another Boulder or Berkeley, but I don't want to live in an area where bigoted elements of society set the tone.
Unfortunately, it looks like several Western states (Colorado, Utah, Oregon, Washington, California) have yet to recover from the late '90s bubble. Housing costs AND unemployment are sky-high - a murderous combination.
Basically, what I'm looking for is an area that the late '90s Internet bubble missed entirely. The bubble hit hardest in cities that Gen-Xers (myself included) considered to be really "hip" or "cool" - the Bay Area, Austin, Boulder, etc.
With the tech bubble came a tremendous run-up in real-estate prices that will take a generation to correct. The historical rate of real-estate appreciation is around 4-7% annually, but places like Salt Lake, Denver, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Portland (OR), and the SF Bay Area were experiencing 30-40% ANNUAL appreciation. For those of you who haven't seen this kind of inflation - home prices were rising $10,000 per MONTH. Every time you'd turn your back in Denver, all the builders would paint over their signs with higher prices. Few things are as horrifying to a home buyer as seeing seeing entry-level prices in a subdivison run up from $140,000 to $220,000 in a matter of weeks!!!
When it comes to my criteria, low housing costs and a favorable labor market are most important to me. My next home doesn't need to be another Boulder or Berkeley, but I don't want to live in an area where bigoted elements of society set the tone.
