If you had $150,000 to spend on a house, where would you live in MS? (Greenville: health insurance, new house)

[Tama]

What did you disagree with? I just stated what things were like for me. My experience-my opinion-I was responding to a poster who said MS couldn't be great by any measure. It is great for me and I stated why.

There is poverty in Mississippi. There is also wealth. If one is educated there are opportunities like anywhere else. There are different demographics.
The undereducated and unskilled have a tough time. Kids raised by single parents or by grandparents who don't have the stamina to do so have a tough time. Kids born to teen-agers have a tough time. Kids born to drug addicts have a tough time. Skilled workers, professionals, and businessmen and women do well. There are beautiful neighborhoods and there are slums--like anywhere else.

The bottomline is education is free. If one gets educated there will be no stopping him---in MS or elsewhere. The "millions in poverty" need to teach that to their kids.

[jacksonian]

[quote=DebFlack;7599402]

Originally Posted by Tama

DebFlack says

I don't believe what I just read---perhaps I misunderstood------Mississippi is FULL of poverty for millions of its citizens, so, en masse, the state itself is a poster child for economic failure, poverty, racism, and distraught for millions of its own citizens

Hmmm... considering less than 3 million people live in the entire state of Mississippi...

[poptones]

Honestly.. right now if I had 150,000 to spend on a home in ms I'd live exactly where I am right now, but I'd do the work I want to do to fix the place up. I bought a 99 year old house in foreclosure and I love it but it needs LOTS of work. Great neighborhood, close enough to train station I hear and see the train without being rattled by it, 3 blocks from downtown and 4 blocks from one of the best public schools around.

Want to see what a quarter million will bring you? I am pretty sure even this house would not cost 250,000 and it is a rather "famoous" house about three blocks from me.

Stunning Victorian (side view), Winona, Montgomery County, Mississippi on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

50K will get you a very nice single story victorian even closer to the public school than I am (though a bit further from downtown).

http://www.thompsonrealtyapp.com/listing.php?id=347

In fact, I considered buying it not too long ago but at 68K it was more than I could afford (my 2000 sq ft house, btw, cost like 13K and 800 a year in property taxes because of its very good location which makes it "valued" at 60k).

For like 400 bucks I can go to chicago for a day or two; for like 200 bucks I can go to new orleans and spend the night in the heart of the french quarter. I don't have to drive to these places and I can spend the entire trip enjoying myself... so why would I want to live somewhere I spend two hours a day cussing about the traffic? So far as poverty... I've been in poverty for several years now and still make a decent go of it... probably much better than I would living in LA or NY or even New Orleans or Chicago.

[jacksonian]

Originally Posted by poptones

Honestly.. right now if I had 150,000 to spend on a home in ms I'd live exactly where I am right now, but I'd do the work I want to do to fix the place up. I bought a 99 year old house in foreclosure and I love it but it needs LOTS of work. Great neighborhood, close enough to train station I hear and see the train without being rattled by it, 3 blocks from downtown and 4 blocks from one of the best public schools around.

Want to see what a quarter million will bring you? I am pretty sure even this house would not cost 250,000 and it is a rather "famoous" house about three blocks from me.

Stunning Victorian (side view), Winona, Montgomery County, Mississippi on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

50K will get you a very nice single story victorian even closer to the public school than I am (though a bit further from downtown).

http://www.thompsonrealtyapp.com/listing.php?id=347

In fact, I considered buying it not too long ago but at 68K it was more than I could afford (my 2000 sq ft house, btw, cost like 13K and 800 a year in property taxes because of its very good location which makes it "valued" at 60k).

For like 400 bucks I can go to chicago for a day or two; for like 200 bucks I can go to new orleans and spend the night in the heart of the french quarter. I don't have to drive to these places and I can spend the entire trip enjoying myself... so why would I want to live somewhere I spend two hours a day cussing about the traffic? So far as poverty... I've been in poverty for several years now and still make a decent go of it... probably much better than I would living in LA or NY or even New Orleans or Chicago.

It sounds like you really have it all figured out. I can't believe houses that nice are selling that cheap! Like they say, "Only in Mississippi!"

[Phil75230]

I'd live as close to the following areas as that $150K allowed:

*Jackson - Fondren & Belhaven neighborhoods

*Biloxi - don't know it too well, but I'd say most averagely educated lower middle class ares

*Bay St. Louis (same criteria as Biloxi)

*Anywhere in DeSoto Co (if only because it's a stone's throw from Midtown Memphis).

As I repeated ad infinum on here, I have a strong bias FAVORING the most liberal parts of a city (at least where medium sized Middle American cities are concerned). I just HAVE to have easy access to areas that are conducive to my mentality.

[DebFlack]

[quote=jacksonian;7617500]

Originally Posted by DebFlack

Hmmm... considering less than 3 million people live in the entire state of Mississippi...

You are quite correct, it wasn't hyperbole- meant to say hundreds of thousands-and it seems that the population is decreasing

[poptones]

You know... the latest figures I heard about put unemployment in some parts of this state over 30 percent with a statewide average somewhere near twenty percent. And thirty percent of the people in this state get SOME form of government assistance. Now, those on assistance may or may not work but I think it's safe to assume half those who are on assistance are probably unable or without work for some time. And the way unemployment figures work is once you are out of that system for some time you simply are no longer counted...

What I am saying is if the population is 3 Million I think it safe to assume at least a Million of us - a full third of us in MS - do not work, at least in the "official" sense.

[Gill O'Blarney]

Originally Posted by jacksonian

-----------I must warn you that the soils in MS are not the best around. There is a lot of expansive clay, which makes for lots of movement. So, if you're looking for a house with some age to it, you should expect to see crooked windows, doors, and floors in a large portion of them.

Thank you for that information. I had never heard of the clay problem until now. It is apparently called "Yazoo Clay" by the geologists. - I had long wondered about the "roller coaster" highways in Jackson and surrounding areas, and now I know it's not just sloppy highway engineering - but a "force of nature" problem.

(I looked up "expansive clay" on Google as a result of your information and learned this and much else about it.)

[Gill O'Blarney]

Originally Posted by poptones

You know... the latest figures I heard about put unemployment in some parts of this state over 30 percent with a statewide average somewhere near twenty percent. And thirty percent of the people in this state get SOME form of government assistance. Now, those on assistance may or may not work but I think it's safe to assume half those who are on assistance are probably unable or without work for some time. And the way unemployment figures work is once you are out of that system for some time you simply are no longer counted...

What I am saying is if the population is 3 Million I think it safe to assume at least a Million of us - a full third of us in MS - do not work, at least in the "official" sense.

__________________

I don't think it's safe to assume that at all. And I don't know where you get your figures. City-Data is a great place to get statistics about a city or a state. One statistic available is that according to the U.S. Labor Department, unemployment is about 10% in Mississippi. Not all tha different from the national average in this recession. Mississippians do work and they work hard.

Check out the average income levels for Brandon, Madison, etc. This is not a devastated economically failed state, despite the image some have of it, and the unsupported comments posted by a few. - Just look at City-Data's profile for the state to get a more acccurate picture.

[Gill O'Blarney]

PS: The welfare statistics for Mississippi maintained by the U.S. government's HHS Department for 2003 (couldn't readily find more recent numbers) show that 1.547 percent of Mississippians are on Welfare - a far cry from your one-third of the state's population. And it's better than states like California where 3.05 percent of Californians are on welfare.

That's 45,191 Mississippians - not a million.