Oregon's Middle Class (Portland, Salem, Detroit: middle-class, transplants, mortgage)

[Minervah]

Okay so this is not to keep people away but it's an opinion of what they may have to face when condsidering a move here. I have seen too many potential transplants posting here of late who want to move to Oregon for the scenery without seemingly giving a thought as to how they will be able to survive.

I believe things will get better but for now this apparently is more the situation today.

Oregon's Middle Class Under Threat - Oregon Center for Public Policy

[sayulita]

Sad, but true. Everyone I know is struggling much more than they were ten years ago.

[AztoORegon]

It is true. People think its going to be an easy transition and there is a job waiting for them. I knew 2 years ago we were going to move some where not sure where but I knew it. I have saved up as much as I can , sold my house, and am about to finish my 2nd degree. I already have a full ride transition over in Portland or Salem I am able to choose so I know that I have made plans for my family and I that are secure. I am not going to get over my head with a huge place I " think" i can afford. I live within my means and sometimes below that so I can spend more time with my family and go on mini vacations. People assume the economy is going to JUMP soon and we all will be okay. I don't believe in any of that, I support my self and my own future and never will I move if my family was to be negatively effected by it.

[Minervah]

Originally Posted by AztoORegon

It is true. People think its going to be an easy transition and there is a job waiting for them. I knew 2 years ago we were going to move some where not sure where but I knew it. I have saved up as much as I can , sold my house, and am about to finish my 2nd degree. I already have a full ride transition over in Portland or Salem I am able to choose so I know that I have made plans for my family and I that are secure. I am not going to get over my head with a huge place I " think" i can afford. I live within my means and sometimes below that so I can spend more time with my family and go on mini vacations. People assume the economy is going to JUMP soon and we all will be okay. I don't believe in any of that, I support my self and my own future and never will I move if my family was to be negatively effected by it.

I wish I could rep you one thousand times. Anyone planning to relocate to Oregon or anywhere else for that matter should have this as required reading.

It's the smartest way to go. Especially when there is a family involved.

[Daisy32673]

The middle class is disappearing and much worse off in other places (California anyone?). It never ceases to amaze me how many people are just jaded about up and moving here without a second thought but you just have to figure they can do their research and planning ahead of time or not. But all the posts asking "how is the job market" and "how hard is it to get a job?" get old after a while.

[Minervah]

Originally Posted by Daisy32673

The middle class is disappearing and much worse off in other places (California anyone?). It never ceases to amaze me how many people are just jaded about up and moving here without a second thought but you just have to figure they can do their research and planning ahead of time or not. But all the posts asking "how is the job market" and "how hard is it to get a job?" get old after a while.

And when sometimes when someone tries to tell them it isn't what they wanted to hear, they get downright hostile.

[Daisy32673]

Originally Posted by Minervah

And when sometimes when someone tries to tell them it isn't what they wanted to hear, they get downright hostile.

Yep! I just responded to a post on the Oregon board where someone didnt like the job/employment advice they were given. I cant imagine being so blase`about something that is so key in relocating

[roneb]

Once upon a time I thought of myself as middle class. Four kids, trying to make it on one salary for years so the spouse could stay home to raise the kids, spending a year on unemployment, and now filling out bankruptcy paperwork have cured me of those delusions.

[hamellr]

My wife wants kids. But I can't see how we can afford it. The mortgage takes over half my pay by itself. We can't sell the house, not because we're upside down, but because the only house that has sold in my neighborhood in the past three years is nearly double what mine is worth. And there are some really nice houses in the same price range I'd want to sell in that have been on the market for coming on four years.

The only reason we have any kind of savings right now is due to few strokes of financial luck over the past two years.

[khyron]

I say this every time it comes up, but since it's come up again...I will never be able to understand an adult just up and moving to a new city without a job or job prospects, a thorough plan, and substantial savings. This is just one of those stubborn, self-centered American tropes that blows my mind. What goes on in the minds of these people? Do they believe in fairy dust or something? Have they had one of those enviable lives where the universe (or their parents) have just always provided for them so they don't have any concept of risk or consequences or self-reliance?

It's sort of like the reverse of the other kind of uniquely American worker I can't comprehend...the skilled laborer who will watch obediently as their bosses and unions destroy an industry in a given area (say, Detroit) and just absolutely refuse to move themselves to another given area (say, the entire South) where the same skilled jobs (say, automotive assembly) are plentiful and the cost of living is similar or lower than anything they've ever experienced. Do they move? Hell no, they stay put and complain, as if the universe owes them something.

It's the 21st century, and it's been two whole generations since the concept of a reliable career doing one thing for one company in one city for a whole lifetime has existed as a commonplace lifestyle in this country (or much of the industrialized world).

Yes, it's tragic that in many places jobs are harder to come by than in others. Yes, it's sound advice that people drawn to Oregon or anywhere else's natural beauty and other perks should be advised of a currently particularly harsh trend in unemployment. But seriously folks, why do so many people seem to need to be told this?

I feel like there's a base societal problem that, unchecked, will just continue to exacerbate these issues in any similarly afflicted region. People need to get over themselves and realize that nobody innately "deserves" to get to live wherever they want. That is a freedom you earn, only after building a stable life for your household. Perhaps people who grow up in smaller countries with greater mobility barriers of culture and language figure this out more inherently or something?

We certainly don't seem to do a good job of being honest with ourselves about it here.