Why Middle Class Americans Can't Afford to Live in Liberal Cities (Portland: apartment, rent)

[rzzzz]

Originally Posted by PDXNative2Houston

This. I moved away just as Squidlo did because I didn't want to live a life of scraping by, renting until I'm 40 (or beyond), and being a slave to my employer because they know that it's not easy to move around in PDX.

Fast forward to where I'm at now, and I'm in my late twenties and have *tripled* my income from 60k-180k within the past 4 years, own a 3000 sq ft home with a pool, wife, child, 2 cars, "0" crime neighborhood, and hey can actually eat out/take vacations/pay for random crap that comes up without really having to worry about it. The key here is that Squidlo and I ARE NOT SPECIAL. I know I certainly am not.

Compare that to my friends who sticked around in PDX, they're all still renting, all still have very slow career advancement (if any at all), and really have to think and stress about expenses on a day to day basis.

what do you do for a living?

[Pretzelogik]

Or...maybe don't want to live in liberal cities.

[KJoe11]

Originally Posted by ctr88

This is such a stupid thread. 95% of the U.S. is dirt cheap. If you want to buy a house go move to any flyover state. There are only a few expensive areas in the coastal areas on the U.S.. Want cheap? Move to Michigan and you can buy a house for $50k. Indiana? North Carolina? New Mexico? Tennessee? Nebraska? Texas? Arizona? Idaho? It goes on and on and on. ANY city that is popular in the entire WORLD is ridiculously expensive. Try to rent a place in Tokyo, Paris, London, Hong Kong, etc... Even a place like Rome where the economy sucks and there are a lot of poor people is still incredibly expensive. When a ton of people want to live somewhere the laws of supply and demand is going to drive up the cost of housing. It will always be that way and it will never change.

And people who say the American dream is over is such a giant load of BS too. I do a lot of travel around the world and where is it better??? Nowhere in this universe. You just need the right skills and drive and there is a ton of opportunity. Instead of whining on CD threads. There are a ton of high paying jobs that go unfilled and HB 1 Visa immigrants have to be recruited for them because there are no Americans with the skills to fill them.

It is interesting that people like to base their opinion/argument with cities like Chicago, NYC, LA, and SF. These places are the exceptions, not the average American city.

Whenever I see a thread when someone uses these metropolis' as their point, it is really hard to discern of what is accurate

[rzzzz]

Well it's actually easier to afford a house in Chicago than it is in Portland.

[PDXNative2Houston]

Originally Posted by rzzzz

what do you do for a living?

CPA by trade...did my years in public accounting then switched over to industry in Oil & Gas E&P as a risk and control manager as well as oversee our hedging program.

In PDX I'd be almost assured to not have broken the 6 figure mark yet. I base that from my graduating class that stayed in Oregon, and not even 1 has as of yet

[almostjay]

Originally Posted by ctr88

This is such a stupid thread. 95% of the U.S. is dirt cheap. If you want to buy a house go move to any flyover state. There are only a few expensive areas in the coastal areas on the U.S.. Want cheap? Move to Michigan and you can buy a house for $50k. Indiana? North Carolina? New Mexico? Tennessee? Nebraska? Texas? Arizona? Idaho? It goes on and on and on. ANY city that is popular in the entire WORLD is ridiculously expensive. Try to rent a place in Tokyo, Paris, London, Hong Kong, etc... Even a place like Rome where the economy sucks and there are a lot of poor people is still incredibly expensive. When a ton of people want to live somewhere the laws of supply and demand is going to drive up the cost of housing. It will always be that way and it will never change.

And people who say the American dream is over is such a giant load of BS too. I do a lot of travel around the world and where is it better??? Nowhere in this universe. You just need the right skills and drive and there is a ton of opportunity. Instead of whining on CD threads. There are a ton of high paying jobs that go unfilled and HB 1 Visa immigrants have to be recruited for them because there are no Americans with the skills to fill them.

I'm not sure you understand the point of this thread. The country/world can't be constructed in such a way that the upper classes live in the desirable cities and the rest of the people live elsewhere. Reason being that the services that make those places desirable need to be staffed by workers who are lower to middle class wage earners. The question is, for me at least, where are these people supposed to live?

I am interested in this question because if anything, I am an upper middle class wage earner and find it difficult at times, so I can't even fathom how minimum wage earners make things work. I have those skills and drive that you speak of (busted my ass to become my family's first college graduate, with an engineering degree no less) as well, and while opportunity exists, I'd hesitate to say that there's a "ton" of it.

I also think that renting is not the worst thing in the world, and that perhaps the "dream" of single family with a yard home ownership is a potentially outdated philosophy as the economy and environment continues to evolve. Perhaps if there is some truth to that, and education to support it, people like me can stop feeling discontent about not being able to readily achieve that "dream" and subsequently focus our energy elsewhere. It's a thought.

[rzzzz]

Originally Posted by PDXNative2Houston

CPA by trade...did my years in public accounting then switched over to industry in Oil & Gas E&P as a risk and control manager as well as oversee our hedging program.

In PDX I'd be almost assured to not have broken the 6 figure mark yet. I base that from my graduating class that stayed in Oregon, and not even 1 has as of yet

Can people who have a physics or math degree, but are not a CPA or a petroleum engineer, make a good living doing something in Houston? What would it be? (asking for my younger brother)

[Squidlo]

Originally Posted by rzzzz

Can people who have a physics or math degree, but are not a CPA or a petroleum engineer, make a good living doing something in Houston? What would it be? (asking for my younger brother)

Short answer yes. No question. If you have a BS there is opportunity here. Pull up job listings for Houston. (No it isn't horrible living here)

[Squidlo]

Originally Posted by almostjay

I'm not sure you understand the point of this thread. The country/world can't be constructed in such a way that the upper classes live in the desirable cities and the rest of the people live elsewhere. Reason being that the services that make those places desirable need to be staffed by workers who are lower to middle class wage earners. The question is, for me at least, where are these people supposed to live?

I am interested in this question because if anything, I am an upper middle class wage earner and find it difficult at times, so I can't even fathom how minimum wage earners make things work. I have those skills and drive that you speak of (busted my ass to become my family's first college graduate, with an engineering degree no less) as well, and while opportunity exists, I'd hesitate to say that there's a "ton" of it.

I also think that renting is not the worst thing in the world, and that perhaps the "dream" of single family with a yard home ownership is a potentially outdated philosophy as the economy and environment continues to evolve. Perhaps if there is some truth to that, and education to support it, people like me can stop feeling discontent about not being able to readily achieve that "dream" and subsequently focus our energy elsewhere. It's a thought.

I think in order to realize your dream you need to see what is stopping you now. If the be all end all of your existence is to live in Portland, then struggle on brother. I do love my home town. I still visit my friends and family. I hit all the spots I liked when I was a resident. I just enjoy the rest of my life elsewhere.

[PDXNative2Houston]

Originally Posted by rzzzz

Can people who have a physics or math degree, but are not a CPA or a petroleum engineer, make a good living doing something in Houston? What would it be? (asking for my younger brother)

Absolutely! First of all Physics majors compete with petroleum engineers for jobs at Oil companies. Physicists usually are on the "R&D" side of the business and PE's are on the practical day to day operations side.

Caveat that with that Houston has an extremely diverse economy now. I believe it has the largest or one of the largest medical centers in the world, manufacturing is extremely strong, retail/restaurants are booming and there is a whole host load of IT professionals and other support roles needed to make sure all of the above keeps moving.

There are a lot of things I miss about Oregon, like topography and great outdoor activities. The question you or your brother have to ask, is what is your value proposition on those things in relation to what other cities have to offer? For young up and comers I'd say PDX is a bad choice...for a trust fund kid or an established professional who moves to PDX with a loaded career it might not be so bad.