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UsernameLOL,
I live in Abilene and the name of the game in this area is wind power. More and more wind farms are going up and, apparently, this is an industry willing to train. My neighbor's 20-year-old son got a good job at one of the wind farms recently. So, if you're concerned about oil, you might want to think wind!
I'm new to Midland and we are not in the Gas/Oil Business so forgive me if I am ignorant about this but what exactly would cause an OIL BUST? Would it be that the high price of oil would actually back fire on the OIL/GAS industry by increasing their cost of production/cost of drilling, refining etc? The demand for oil/gas will not go away as long as we are driving our cars so what exactly would cause a bust? Not to mention all the plastic by-products of petroleum that we use in our daily lives. (Can you tell I just had a tour of the Petroleum Museum!) BTW it's a first class facility and I want to go back since I was "rushed" through by my children and didn't get as much out of it as I would have liked!
Location: Midessa, Texas Home Yangzhou, Jiangsu temporarily
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Originally Posted by pammybear
I'm new to Midland and we are not in the Gas/Oil Business so forgive me if I am ignorant about this but what exactly would cause an OIL BUST? Would it be that the high price of oil would actually back fire on the OIL/GAS industry by increasing their cost of production/cost of drilling, refining etc? The demand for oil/gas will not go away as long as we are driving our cars so what exactly would cause a bust? Not to mention all the plastic by-products of petroleum that we use in our daily lives. (Can you tell I just had a tour of the Petroleum Museum!) BTW it's a first class facility and I want to go back since I was "rushed" through by my children and didn't get as much out of it as I would have liked!
Pam
What will cause an oil bust in this area Pam is when oil prices go below or near our cost to produce it. The Midland/Odessa area is a mature field, that means that we have to use certain technologies to produce oil that raises our cost compared to some other countries in the world. Also environmental and labor regulations can increase our cost. I am not in the petroleum industry either, but I think the floor for us is about $30 a barrel now.
The price is set by a market of speculators, end users, and producers. If a large new oil field is discovered and developed, or if global demand decreases then prices could drop dramatically.
I tend to believe that since there is little spare production and demand is consistently growing, the price should remain relatively high for the foreseeable future. But then again no one ever expects a bust. The truth of the matter is that oil prices can be demoniacally difficult to predict and a bust can come at any moment. Booms and busts are just part of the natural rhythms of life in West Texas.
I like the Petroleum Museum. The part where the well "blows up" can scare you the first few times. I wouldn't bother moving here for the "boom." It isn't going to be a long one this time, I'm afraid.
My boyfriend and I are thinking about moving to Midland. We are in the process of researching and learning as much as we can before we start packing though. I am a native of Florida and have never been to Texas. My boyfriend and I have been hearing about an oil boom in the Midland area but are not sure if there are really any jobs for us to acquire if we decide to make the move. My boyfriend is an architect and mechanical engineer so if the housing situation is growing as fast as some say he could find work in the housing developments. He is also fluent in Spanish and Italian so the language barrier wouldn't be an issue. Our only hesitation is hitting the area on the downslope. The Florida city I live in has almost zero job opportunities and it's looking like the situation isn't going to get better. I am hoping to get some guidance and some kind of outlook from someone who is a resident. Any information anyone can provide would be greatly appreciated.
I like the Petroleum Museum. The part where the well "blows up" can scare you the first few times. I wouldn't bother moving here for the "boom." It isn't going to be a long one this time, I'm afraid.
While the boom is going on, city leaders need to develop other industries, so when it cools off, the city still has other things to fall back on.
Midland has very few opportunities for professionals. I have never seen an ad for an architect, but have seen a few for CAD techs. The pay is low overall. I've never seen an ad for an M.E. either, come to think of it. There are sometimes ads for geologists and I've seen 2 in six years for chemists.
There are only a handful of professional-type jobs in town (other than physicians), and people tend to hang onto those jobs. There's much opportunity for RNs, a quasi-profession, but sometimes once you look into it, it isn't what it seems. The high-dollar RN jobs tend to be w/o benefits and if you read the fine print, it's for only 2 shifts a month, etc.
The community college is very small, and has just a handful of tenured spots. The rest of the instructors get to teach only a section or two, and they can't live on that. UTPB is in Odessa (next door) and although they were running a big ad for awhile, calling for all sorts of PhD's and those with Master's degrees, it turned out they were only trying to establish a "pool" of candidates in case they ever decided to offer courses in those areas.
The oil field boom you hear about gives work to roustabouts and roughnecks, but their pay is dropping fast. Some are being asked to split time between Midland and the oil area of N.M. (Farmington, Lovington). We had a spike of well-paying entry-level food jobs (like $9/hr for a dishwasher), but now some of the places are firing the workers they hired at the high rate and bringing them back at the former low rate (like 6.50).
As to housing, the McMansions are going up fast. But there's a limit to it. For example, the spendy TexLand development just has a very few houses in it. They are humongous, some taking over a year to build, but only a handful to be built now. The Grasslands area is expanding (wannabee rich people), but this is all going to come to a SCREECHING HALT. Midland tends to lag years behind in terms of economics and trends, and the ax is about to fall here on those borrowing much more than they could afford. Already houses have "Price Reduced" signs on them. You don't see that when a boom is on the upswing, only on the down.
This is my view. I live here. I'm leaving. Others may be doing well and wish to stay. Midland has staunch defenders. It's safe, it's cheap so far as housing (or it was, people are trying to gouge now), it has mild winters. It has lots of sunshiny days. If church is your thing, this is the place. It's changing. There is a tremendous influx of Hispanics, and there is a culture clash. Been there, done that, no thanks. Your husband's Spanish will come in handy, but just to illustrate -- that isn't considered "enough" for Midland's new superintendent. He, with others, wants people to be "culturally bilingual," in that they are saying candidates for jobs should have lived at least 6 months immersed in a Latino culture, or be Latino. This is just getting a bit too much for me. I like MULTIcultural areas, not MONOcultural ones.
Each place seems to be one person's paradise and another person's perdition. You just never know. Good luck to you.
Midland has very few opportunities for professionals. I have never seen an ad for an architect, but have seen a few for CAD techs. The pay is low overall. I've never seen an ad for an M.E. either, come to think of it. There are sometimes ads for geologists and I've seen 2 in six years for chemists.
There are only a handful of professional-type jobs in town (other than physicians), and people tend to hang onto those jobs. There's much opportunity for RNs, a quasi-profession, but sometimes once you look into it, it isn't what it seems. The high-dollar RN jobs tend to be w/o benefits and if you read the fine print, it's for only 2 shifts a month, etc.
The community college is very small, and has just a handful of tenured spots. The rest of the instructors get to teach only a section or two, and they can't live on that. UTPB is in Odessa (next door) and although they were running a big ad for awhile, calling for all sorts of PhD's and those with Master's degrees, it turned out they were only trying to establish a "pool" of candidates in case they ever decided to offer courses in those areas.
The oil field boom you hear about gives work to roustabouts and roughnecks, but their pay is dropping fast. Some are being asked to split time between Midland and the oil area of N.M. (Farmington, Lovington). We had a spike of well-paying entry-level food jobs (like $9/hr for a dishwasher), but now some of the places are firing the workers they hired at the high rate and bringing them back at the former low rate (like 6.50).
As to housing, the McMansions are going up fast. But there's a limit to it. For example, the spendy TexLand development just has a very few houses in it. They are humongous, some taking over a year to build, but only a handful to be built now. The Grasslands area is expanding (wannabee rich people), but this is all going to come to a SCREECHING HALT. Midland tends to lag years behind in terms of economics and trends, and the ax is about to fall here on those borrowing much more than they could afford. Already houses have "Price Reduced" signs on them. You don't see that when a boom is on the upswing, only on the down.
This is my view. I live here. I'm leaving. Others may be doing well and wish to stay. Midland has staunch defenders. It's safe, it's cheap so far as housing (or it was, people are trying to gouge now), it has mild winters. It has lots of sunshiny days. If church is your thing, this is the place. It's changing. There is a tremendous influx of Hispanics, and there is a culture clash. Been there, done that, no thanks. Your husband's Spanish will come in handy, but just to illustrate -- that isn't considered "enough" for Midland's new superintendent. He, with others, wants people to be "culturally bilingual," in that they are saying candidates for jobs should have lived at least 6 months immersed in a Latino culture, or be Latino. This is just getting a bit too much for me. I like MULTIcultural areas, not MONOcultural ones.
Each place seems to be one person's paradise and another person's perdition. You just never know. Good luck to you.
Thanks for the heads up. Traditionally companies don't place ads in the local papers for P.E.'s or Architects. For the most part you send a CV to them and then they decide if they need you or not. Kind-of cryptic in my opinion but I'm not the one who gets to dictate the industry. As for the cultural aspect of the language, my boyfriend is half Mexican, half Italian. He also lived in Mexico for a portion of his life and still visits his family there about once a year. This is why I said the language barrier wouldn't be an issue.
For the most part, all the information I have been gathering on the area is conflicting. You're right about the Midland die hard's and their opinion of the area, but it seems the housing issue isn't a topic anyone can agree on. This leads me to believe the market isn't as grand as some portray it to be. If there is not a big job market for professionals then I would have a hard time finding work also. The more I read your feedback the more I am convinced this move would not be a wise venture. I love Florida, I've lived her my entire life but the job market really sucks right now. If you're thinking about moving from Midland please take Florida off your list for now. My sister lives in Seattle and from what I hear from her things are going pretty well for them. All in all I will keep looking for a place to relocate to. I wish you good luck in all your endeavors also.
kk, my opinion is valid -- for me, for the way I see things. For you, it might be a wonderful spot. I find it very rigid. And I find the way the races do NOT get along very frightening and it is more and more pronounced because of rabblerousers on both sides. However, when the Klan tried to hold a rally, we all gave them quite the cold shoulder and they crawled back home to San Angelo!
Maybe you should rent a place (many nice homes for rent at the upper end) and try it out. I can guarantee you'd love the sun. I lived in Destin and while there's no comparison as to the beauty of the beaches, the sun is out much more often, like CONSTANTLY.
BTW I lived outside of Seattle on an island. Weather aside, it was a cool experience. If you don't mind commuting maybe you should consider up there. Or perhaps you have the money to live near where you'd work. You sound young and I will tell you my BEST advice: Be SURE to go where YOU also have a good job that you will LOVE going to! It's so MUCH of your life that is spent working!
I think Las Cruces is truly booming still, including the housing, but you might want to check on that board over in the New Mexico forum. Might be a lot of opportunity for you there. They have a good university there. I'm trying to think of sunny places you might like.
It isn't sunny, but Louisville is a very nice place and poised for a renaissance. The U of Louisville is well-respected and they have Humana up there, well, tons up there. But...it does get cold. I really don't like the cold and I'm not sure a Florida gal such as yourself would either.
Good luck to you. Didn't mean to scare you away from Midland. Some ppl just truly love it here and have excellent jobs and a good life.
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