Crazy growth projected for Odessa/Midland! (Houston, Detroit: living in, bus, food)

[Mark Senior]

Originally Posted by whitegiant

Economist: Metro Odessa to gain 40K in five years - Odessa American: News

It is almost unreal with how the Permian Basin is growing right now!! I can not even imagine though how it will be with all of those extra people considering it is already busting at the seams here now! Hopefully the city will make choices for more subdivisions and apartments...Along with fixing our roads before this many more people come to town. Ridiculous for a town our size to add 40k more people in only five years. If this boom holds that is, but that is really anyones guess.

Past growth is 8,000 per year for both M/O not just Odessa, that 8,000 just for Odessa, is quite a "reach", has not happened yet for one year only.

[JoninATX]

Originally Posted by Mark Senior

Medical will only come from more population not more population because of more medical

True, though somewhere I read that Midland may get a Medical school in the near future.

[Mark Senior]

Originally Posted by JoninATX

Both are quite the boom town. Also with the growth that's been occuring, I wouldn't be surprised if the Midland/ Odessa area already exceeded past the 300,000 mark.

Your are correct, the census latest annual estimates, which are for July 1, 2013 and are the most reliable year after year, which came out in March this year shows, Midland Metro at 151,000 and Odessa Metro not cities, at 149,000 so 300,000, even more today.

[Midessan]

Originally Posted by Mark Senior

Past growth is 8,000 per year for both M/O not just Odessa, that 8,000 just for Odessa, is quite a "reach", has not happened yet for one year only.

I think the reason that they believe Odessa will suddenly grow much faster than it has in the recent past is because there are two large sub-divisions on the city's north-east side that finally have all the approvals done and have utilities in place so they will begin to fill with new homes quickly. There will be hundreds, maybe even thousands of new units that will be easily accessible from Midland as well. I saw a planning map and if everything gets built as planned, one of these sub-divisions will be almost as big as Odessa proper is now by area.

[Cathy4017]

Originally Posted by High_Plains_Retired

I'm now only a spectator to an economy I probably would have done better to try and understand.

My tax appraisal on the farm only went up slightly this year so I guess I'm still out to the side of all the Texas growth. That's where I wanted to be but maybe my daughter, a child of the city, will at least be able to sell this old place when I'm through with it.

Good on the tax appraisal. Maybe the boom won't reach that far for awhile. I know it has affected my hometown. I have to come back here because there is never a room available.

I'm glad not to be in the middle of it any more, and from what people that still live there tell me, it's not fun. It was crazy enough with the last one before this. Horrible traffic, rude, pushy people, crowds, etc.

I haven't been back yet....every night on the news that I bother to watch--regardless of which one it is, there are wrecks, fatalities, murders. etc. I know bad news sells, but all of this seems excessive, even for M/O.

[cBach]

Is there a reason why Midland and Odessa grew up as separate cities? It seems as if one bigger city would have helped the region better. That one city would rival Corpus Christi in population. Instead, you have two medium, Beaumont sized cities.

[Midessan]

Originally Posted by cBach

Is there a reason why Midland and Odessa grew up as separate cities? It seems as if one bigger city would have helped the region better. That one city would rival Corpus Christi in population. Instead, you have two medium, Beaumont sized cities.

I would like to know that too. You would think that one city or the other would grow faster and become the dominant city, but so far that hasn't happened. The two do have different governing styles, Midland is focused on building and maintaining a "nice" city. Whereas Odessa is more laissez faire. It is puzzling how the two have managed to remain nearly the same size as each other over the years.

[Westerntraveler]

Originally Posted by cBach

Is there a reason why Midland and Odessa grew up as separate cities? It seems as if one bigger city would have helped the region better. That one city would rival Corpus Christi in population. Instead, you have two medium, Beaumont sized cities.

Odessa was closer to the oil fields so it became the working man's town. The oil companies decided to put their headquarters in Midland in the 20's when oil was discovered.

[Granny Fats]

I must be living in an alternate universe.

I can go out and eat and not wait at all or maybe 15 minutes, except at the places where they always have a wait, even in the bust, because they are run poorly or are brand-new.

I have almost no traffic to and from my job in downtown Midland at an oil company.

Property prices much lower than in many places with few jobs and bad economies, such as Oregon, ABQ, Seattle, Fredericksburg and Austin (to keep it in Texas), any East Coast place, Asheville, Charleston, etc.

I work in OIL and we are ready for the bust and have plans in place. Give it 4-7 years max. We're not hiring directly. Just contractors, temps, rented people and equipment.

[Antares45]

Originally Posted by Granny Fats

I must be living in an alternate universe.

I can go out and eat and not wait at all or maybe 15 minutes, except at the places where they always have a wait, even in the bust, because they are run poorly or are brand-new.

I have almost no traffic to and from my job in downtown Midland at an oil company.

Property prices much lower than in many places with few jobs and bad economies, such as Oregon, ABQ, Seattle, Fredericksburg and Austin (to keep it in Texas), any East Coast place, Asheville, Charleston, etc.

I work in OIL and we are ready for the bust and have plans in place. Give it 4-7 years max. We're not hiring directly. Just contractors, temps, rented people and equipment.

I've heard that the lines at restaurants are lower than usual simply because it's still vacation season. Either way, I haven't found waiting to be much of an issue during lunch hours if you get there before 11:30am.

Traffic is bad, but it isn't the unholy nightmare that people make it out to be. In fact, I found the oilfield traffic to be far more dangerous in the Eagle Ford. Those small towns didn't have bypasses for the trucks when the boom began, nor do they have the tax revenue base to make it happen. You need to be careful on the roads where big rigs are traveling, but otherwise traffic is no worse than any major city in Texas.

Hiring temps is the norm now. That way, companies can hire white-collar workers without having to pay them benefits. Why else would the temp periods last a year or more?

BTW, I've sent you a PM regarding your company.