[jmlowman]

Originally Posted by malamute

Most of my family there is working and I didn't really see despair when I visited in the summer. I saw a lot of houses and land for sale, boats for sale.

Even when unemployment reaches 15% or 16% - that means 84% or 85% of people are working and with the high wages in Michigan compared to almost everywhere else, most are doing fine.

I'd have to agree, and in this case we're talking about Flint.

We were there for July 4th and the week following, and I noticed many signs of some prosperity while driving north on Linden Road from our hotel near the airport to my father-in-law's house south of Pasadena that backs up to the I-75 freeway.

We enjoyed numerous restaurants, some ethnic but not fast-food, along this same route. Shopping centers seemed to have few vacancies, and there were competing major investment firms across the street from each other.

Of course I stayed out of the bad parts of the city, but they were bad parts back in to 50s and 60s when I was growing up.

[Brie85]

I would not consider moving back before finding a job. There is fierce competition for general managerial and administrative jobs here. I know someone who advertised for an administrative assistant and quickly received hundreds of applications, including a few from people with MBAs or law degrees.

Hopefully the situation will improve but right now it would be foolish to trade a good job for unemployment.