Everyone moving to Denver! (to rent, buying a home, find job)

[I_Want_Snow]

Originally Posted by rkb0305

I just hope they find a job BEFORE moving. I think it is ridiculous to move without a job.

That is usually easier said then done. Most places, at least in my field of I.T. work, won't bother to even interview you unless you live locally... At least that is what my experience has been. I moved down to FL without a job 3 1/2 years ago and found a full time job in 5 weeks. I just recently moved to Atlanta, GA in June and found a full time job in 6 weeks.

I am coming to the Denver area next August. I am a single, 34 yrs old, with over 11 yrs experience in my field and don't plan on having a job when I move, but I shouldn't have a hard time finding work. I am just to save up a nice chunk of money, around $30 grand (I am halfway there now!!) and just take off!!

The whole finding a job thing before you move really depends on what field you are in. No matter how bad the economy is, certain fields and jobs are still growing... I.T. being one of them!!

[DenverLawGal]

I agree that it's nearly impossible to find work without actually being there. But the assumption that it'll be no prob. finding work, especially in saturated markets like Denver (for IT), is underestimated. It's sketchy in many places for IT, sometimes you can get a job just like that, sometimes you'll wait months. So the huge savings is a real must. I'm in law and can pretty much find work anywhere there are lawyers, but IT is a hard one for many, that's what my DH is in.

Like I said, I think that a lot of people feel, oh yeah, the economy is bad, but... BUT it really hasn't hit yet. It will get much worse.

I do understand quality of life though and wanting a better life for your kids.

[steveindenver]

The whole finding a job thing before you move really depends on what field you are in. No matter how bad the economy is, certain fields and jobs are still growing... I.T. being one of them!!

LOL you are in for a reality check.

[DenverLawGal]

Steve, aren't you in IT? I do find it amusing when people say, "no matter how bad the economy is". I bet the old folks crack up when they hear that. Ever heard of bread lines???

[subsound]

Originally Posted by steveindenver

LOL you are in for a reality check.

Doubtful things will go gang busters, better to stay in your job till things settle down, but just because there's problems in the financial industry doesn't mean the economy will collapse. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/10/op...0mulligan.html

If one has a job and is not caught in the mortgage mess the stock market average price to earnings ratio is the lowest it has been for awhile. How Cheap Are Stocks? - Economix Blog - NYTimes.com

Assuming things don't blow up of course, then those dollars won't be worth anything anyways and you'll have to kill an elk for supper.

[DenverAztec]

Great time to buy, if you have the money and access to credit. Homes are selling for less then market value, interest rates on secured items are low and stock are a steal. Jobs are plentiful if you are young and your expectations are minimal.

Sadly, folks who had the money to make investments have that money tied up in investments that are not paying off. Mom worries about the losses in the market and will she still be able to pay for necessities. What I personal have lost from my 401K contributions (adding to them since I was 20), would have amounted to being able to payoff my mortgage and buy a new car, easily. I know of two friends who are in the process of filing for bankruptcy because they have rental homes with tenants who have lost their jobs and failed to pay, causing sever delinquencies for the home owner. My partner, who was in the IT field, looked for almost a year and a half because the company in Longmont was bought out by a company in California. My brother, software engineer, was just laid off from HP two weeks ago. In my own job, we had to lay off two folks from my team of six Quality Development Managers. It is hitting us in Denver and in Colorado as a whole and we need to plan for it to get worse.

Locally and much of the nation has not felt a limit on credit just yet. Banks and businesses have and this will continue and more employers will not be able to operate as they once did. It was not over night that we got into this mess and it won't be overnight that we get out of it. Several years of deregulation and letting the kids run ramped in the candy shop has created havoc. Lenders and borrowers should be blamed equally, it is not just a simple partisan argument. Credit card interests have begun to climb, even for those who pay on time - first indicator of individual effects of the problem. Next will be inability for you to borrow for homes, cars and future lower limits on credit card balances. Currently, the banks are not trusting each other to lend to one another and also to businesses and eventually it will trickle to you the consumer as well. Toss in fear, apprehension and speculation and the DJIA becomes a goldfish in a piranha pit.

Denver still has the highest number of college graduates per capita in the country and every high level field is competitive. Medical jobs are still in demand but the newer companies that are springing up are in alternative energies. Though it gets cold here, we do have close to 300 days of sunshine and this fact has become internationally know. Temperature does not regulate solar energy. Hence, the enormous push to create solar farms and specialized panels for home usage. Just look south when driving on west 6th, just east of Simms. Proof that even the government has invested significantly in solar at the Federal Center.

Half our state is considered high desert planes so tons of wind is spurring on wind farms. Mining for minerals will also begin to pick up, out of necessity, and this is an industry that pretty much created most of the towns currently in Colorado. There is even a firm moving here to explore diamonds in the northern foothills.

However, it does depend on you. Your age, your desires, your wants and needs, your dreams and contentment, expectations and limits. We have to adjust to our economic environment and be more proactive then complacent or dormant. Can’t do anything about my age, but my desires are less material in orientation and more about comfort and learning about the new industries; my necessities have become my wants – but only temporarily. Our current recession will affect each of us as much as we allow it. Our industries are much more varied then they were in the 1920s and 1930s, so we can bounce back quicker, but we need to invent and not just reproduce within our industries. We as individuals need to change just as our environments around us are. “The only thing constant is change”.

[DenverAztec]

Originally Posted by subsound

...Assuming things don't blow up of course, then those dollars won't be worth anything anyways and you'll have to kill an elk for supper.

Yes, very true, Coloradans can actually hunt wildlife if times get really rough!

[steveindenver]

Steve, aren't you in IT?

In computing, yes. In a very specific field that has always been in demand and yet I've always had to travel outside of Denver. The local rates are low when compared to nearly everywhere else.

The number of layoffs recently has me spooked, but then I've seen it all before.

My comment above came off as flippant. I'm not laughing at the poster but it is hard not to chuckle when you read comments like that given my experience. I would like to think things were otherwise, but the reality as I see it jives with the recommendation to find work before you come looking for work. Competition in Denver and the metro area is fierce.

[DenverLawGal]

Kudos Denver Aztec, loved your post. Credit cards have already started lowering limits, and raising interest. Those days of 0% interest and balance transfers with no fees are over. I noticed that personal lines of credit are up in interest rate too. I too have lost a lot of 401k money and started when I was in my 20s too. But at least we have some time and aren't in our parents' position.

Steve: I bet you do know about layoffs, being in IT, dare I say "dot com's"? I think your comment was flip, but I laughed too. It kind of supported what I was saying about ignorance and a depressed economy. We will either hyperinflate or inflate, either way will be ugly.

[vegaspilgrim]

Originally Posted by wanttomoveeast

Steve: I bet you do know about layoffs, being in IT, dare I say "dot com's"? I think your comment was flip, but I laughed too. It kind of supported what I was saying about ignorance and a depressed economy. We will either hyperinflate or inflate, either way will be ugly.

Another example of pop-finance. Inflation? Right now the price of oil-- perhaps the biggest indicator of inflation-- is dropping rapidly. We're actually more likely to have deflation.