Think hard before you relocate to Michigan (Detroit, Grand Rapids: budget, hotel)

[jeffncandace]

Originally Posted by strangemood

Well besides the economy, How is Michigan living? I am relocating in August with the Government. I am excited for the change. I am going to make the best of it and continue to show my southern charm and polite attitude. Hopefully the only adjustment I have to make is the weather change.

We just moved here last year from California. Michigan is wonderful. If you have a good job like it sounds then you will like it. Like Magellan said you will not enjoy February or March , but I find that the rest of the year is great!

You will find alot of people that hate it here though. For them, the grass is always greener...

Michigan is a beautiful state with abundant natural resources. Even over here in southeast Michigan--which most would consider to be the "worst" part of the state--we love it. There is bad to go along with the good, to be sure. But life is what you make it, and to us anyway, the good outweighs the bad.

[deslok]

Michigan is fine if you have a job. You can afford to buy a wave runner and take it to the big lakes, spend some money in nice restaraunts in Detroit, go see the Tigers, stay at Amway Grand in Grand Rapids, etc.. What sucks is listening to those poor suckers that are out of work and blame everything on a poor economy, the war in Iraq, or Granholm. The people in Michigan are the problem, it is a poor me attitude. Detroit is a great city full of fun and great food. The weather can suck but it really only does in Feb and March. If you cannot work here for whatever reason, leave. People may or may not be computer savy up north, I do not care. All I know is I am, have a job, and enjoy my state for what it is. Really, if a bunch of factory rats rellocate, how is that a bad thing?

[scottmi]

Originally Posted by deslok

Michigan is fine if you have a job. You can afford to buy a wave runner and take it to the big lakes, spend some money in nice restaraunts in Detroit, go see the Tigers, stay at Amway Grand in Grand Rapids, etc.. What sucks is listening to those poor suckers that are out of work and blame everything on a poor economy, the war in Iraq, or Granholm. The people in Michigan are the problem, it is a poor me attitude. Detroit is a great city full of fun and great food. The weather can suck but it really only does in Feb and March. If you cannot work here for whatever reason, leave. People may or may not be computer savy up north, I do not care. All I know is I am, have a job, and enjoy my state for what it is. Really, if a bunch of factory rats rellocate, how is that a bad thing?

Dude, I'm probably more educated and computer-savvy than you'll ever be and it's not my fault if finding a DECENT job in Michigan is near impossible. Lots of other people are in the same boat I am and it's people like you who are truly the ones causing the problems.

The people all set up with their jobs and bloated salaries (in comparison to the average worker here) could care less about the state's economy. So they live in Ann Arbor or go on and on about Grand Rapids life. Let me tell you this - NO job is guaranteed and you could very well be unemployed tomorrow and then you'll be scrambling through newspapers and the same websites thousands of others are checking and competing for the same $12/hr. jobs w/ no benefits.

You need to learn how to be compassionate and a little less holier-than-thou.


Only a select few professions are things that can be done fairly well anywhere (medical and law) in any economy and sadly, I guess those are the only people happy living here.


So you know what? I hope all these "factory rats" and college educated but working for peanuts people leave Michigan forever. Then all of you people with "great" jobs will be left with a barren state with no people to justify your pay or positions --- and then you'll get a taste of your own medicine.

And yes, this is Michigan's fault and all the politicians and business owners here - they don't want to pay people what they're worth and give them a chance at a decent life and then they expect everyone to stay and be happy.

You know what? People in this country have 49 better choices to pick from when it comes to getting treated fairly.

[Southernkomfort27]

Originally Posted by deslok

Michigan is fine if you have a job. You can afford to buy a wave runner and take it to the big lakes, spend some money in nice restaraunts in Detroit, go see the Tigers, stay at Amway Grand in Grand Rapids, etc.. What sucks is listening to those poor suckers that are out of work and blame everything on a poor economy, the war in Iraq, or Granholm. The people in Michigan are the problem, it is a poor me attitude. Detroit is a great city full of fun and great food. The weather can suck but it really only does in Feb and March. If you cannot work here for whatever reason, leave. People may or may not be computer savy up north, I do not care. All I know is I am, have a job, and enjoy my state for what it is. Really, if a bunch of factory rats rellocate, how is that a bad thing?

Gee, it's too bad that you are so annoyed by those poor unemployed suckers complaining about the economy. Maybe you should wear blinders and stick plugs in your ears so your good times are not ruined by those less fortunate than you. Fact is, these people you mention are not only the unemployed but also the underemployed as well. Many of these people have college degrees, and are computer savy. However, buying wave runners, and eating in fancy resteraunts is beyond the budget of a person making only 7 or 8 bucks an hour. You need more than a job, you need a job that pays a living wage.

Yes, people are leaving...in droves. U Hual and other moving companys are profiting nicely as the factory rats, business owners, trades workers, social workers, ect, ect, flee the state, taking their education, their skills and knowledge, and their tax revenue with them. If Michigan's poor economy forces people to leave, than that's another loss for the state. The out of work people are not the problem,...how ridiculous!

[deslok]

Scottmi - I won't debate your qualifications or merits. I only can speculate why you have no place of employment. If your complaining about fairness, you have yet to learn that the world is not fair. It is just business, your time for employment will come. As far as my job I do not have a bloated salary or anything of that nature, I get what I deserve and work hard for my money. I agree if factory rats left, that wouldn't be a bad thing. College educated folks will stay if jobs are around, and fun things to do. Most of the folks I know of that went to U of M have stayed in Michigan and gotten jobs. Sorry for your bad luck however.
I do hope that the Michigan economy turns around so that people have places to work, and complain much less. If they are staying here, and cannot find work, and only complain about the matter and take assistance, how are they not part of the problem? To someone coming to Michigan that has a job, the complaining by folks out of work is about the worst thing you will get is what I am saying.
This forum is about thinking hard before relocatting to Michigan, not I live in Michigan currently, have great computer skills, and cannot get a job. So if your thinking of moving to Michigan and read this, consider whether you already have a job lined up or not before you do.

[jeffncandace]

I just have to interject with a question.

Why has mine and my wife's experiences with employment in Michigan been so drastically different than the (apparent) norm?

I flew out here 1 month before we moved last year and went back to California with 3 job offers.

My wife has recently decided to re-enter the workforce, and within 1 week she has 2 companies bidding for her.

What gives?

[magellan]

Originally Posted by jeffncandace

I just have to interject with a question.

Why has mine and my wife's experiences with employment in Michigan been so drastically different than the (apparent) norm?

I flew out here 1 month before we moved last year and went back to California with 3 job offers.

My wife has recently decided to re-enter the workforce, and within 1 week she has 2 companies bidding for her.

What gives?

There are many fields where it is difficult to find a job, no doubt about it. Recent grads in education are finding it difficult to get teaching jobs: 1) because of school budget cuts, and 2) because the population is not growing as fast as Southern states with new schools being built, and 3) because Michigan universities graduate a TON of education grads, too many to compete for not a lot of openings.

The tool and die industry, as someone mentioned, is very tight because many manufacturing tools and dies are now being built in China (where the quality is not nearly as good, but the cost is 1/4 of what you'd pay here).

Anything related to the construction and real estate industry, ie sales, mortgage, appraisers, and all the construction trades (plumbing, drywall, etc.) has slowed to a crawl this past year.

There are actually quite a few manufacturing jobs being created in West Michigan, mostly non-automotive. The pay is not as good as being a union worker, but many would probably agree that high wages/legacy costs sort of killed the automotive companies. Technology, healthcare, health sciences and financial analysts are in demand, but not so much for recent college grads.

The worst part is that there are SO MANY universities in Michigan graduating 100s of thousands of students every year, that the state can't absorb even a fraction of them. But many of these grads will move to Chicago or Portland and wait tables or bartend, just because of the attitudes and lack of "coolness" in Michigan cities.

[deslok]

Just so clear, your saying you have had good luck with employment in Michigan? Perhaps it is your previous living location. I would think a company would love to have someone schooled from a different location perhaps? Just be happy and enjoy the good fortune. Perhaps Michigan feels if they bring in outsiders with different outlooks on life ( such as positive) things will begin to turn around. New ideas and faces cannot hurt.

[magellan]

I think in relation to the original post, people should think "long and hard" about relocating anywhere right now, unless you have a solid job offer and your company is willing to buy out your current home/pay your realtor fees. All over the national news today:

Existing-home sales fall to 5-year low in June, prices inch up - MarketWatch

National builder confidence is at a 16 year low, as many of their officers say they STILL do not see an end in sight (they are slashing prices, have virtually stopped building spec homes, and STILL not selling what they have).

1st Qtr 2007 sales drop in the U.S. was worst in 28 years (which would put it on par with the beginning of the 1979 housing recession, which didn't work its way out until 4th Qtr 1982 I believe)

There is now nationally an 8.8 month inventory of homes on the market. So that means if NO MORE HOUSES go up for sale (ha, yeah right), it will take 8 months to get out of the current housing slowdown and work through the massive inventory, which means Spring 2008 (and major election years are down years for home sales). Now who here thinks that no more houses will go on the market? Raise your hands.

That's my doom and gloom contribution for the day.

[summers19]

My husband, kids and I travelled to MI this past week. This was the third visit in the last four months as we are trying to still decide whether or not to locate to MI to open up our business. I kind of wish there was no city-data forum as I think this has opened up too many questions for us. Not that we want to stick our heads in the sand, but from what I've seen on all of our visits is that minus the teaching profession, the discrepency seems to be between the blue collar experience vs. the white collar experience within MI. We visited mostly 'white collar' towns...Traverse City, Grand Rapids, Ann Arbor, and Birmingham. Honestly, we didn't witness the doom and gloom that so many posters have written about. Is this a class perception?
Most interesting was Birmingham...I was expecting a doom and gloom atmosphere upon visiting because it's located in SE MI, and to my pleasant surprise, it's a trendy, hip, fun little town. It reminded me a little of Evanston mixed with Winter Park, FL.
On a side note, we noticed that the taxes in MI are VERY low. We live in Virginia where the economy is the best in the country. Our taxes are extremely high (food tax, car tax that we have to pay annually even if our car is already fully paid for, property taxes, liquor tax, state and city taxes). But we don't really mind paying the high taxes b/c we get so much in return (a great booming economy, new schools b/c of the growth, new libraries, a functional state and city government, etc.)
What do Michiganians think about their tax structure? We couldn't believe our food bills or hotel bills...hardly any tax at all. Wouldn't MI start to do better if they raised basic taxes?