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Old 07-16-2008, 09:43 PM
 
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I hear everyone talking from coast to coast about how good life is in Texas in the pocket book. Is this true,? because here in the midwest people are really struggling, with all of the recent job lost. Are the jobs plentiful in Texas, or is Texas overrated, and feeling the bad economy just like everyone else. (Excuse the grammatical errors-I'm really tired!!!)
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Old 07-16-2008, 11:05 PM
 
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while I do not know anyone who has been laid off--I know people who work or worked for American Airlines and they are not happy--they are not sure what routes are being closed and that will have ripple effects throughout the schedule
retired ones are worried that AA will have difficult time staying out of bankruptcy and they will see their pensions significantly reduced and maybe lose their medical benefits--some of them in loyalty to the company have kept their stock which is worth about a 10th of what it was at one time...

it is hard to say==my son works for company that does web-based interactive instructional design--they are busy, busy--but he has not had a raise in a year--his new wife changed jobs to get a promotion--she was working for UNT and now is working for Dallas County Community College system in student services -- she got a pretty good raise because it was a better job--but now that she is working in Carroll, they are probably going to start carpooling to work in one car and sell the other--to save on gas and insurance --she had been riding the bus for free into Denton when gas got expensive because a stop was very close to their apt and they even drive Scion XBs which are pretty fuel efficient==

you see signs HELP WANTED in restaurant windows and smaller stores like that--but I think they can't pay enough to make it worth while to work there--
and the Fort Worth paper has a pretty thin want ad section--I know that Monster.com and Career Builder at where people are looking now
LOTS of jobs for nurses/health care workers--and if you do a search there are lots of other jobs on those web sites but I don't know how easy they actually are to get a job offer from--I think companies are pretty picky about who they choose--can be selective...
I also read article that it was difficult for high school students to get summer jobs because of older workers who had taken jobs they usually got...

food is expensive--lots of articles in the local paper about how to economize--shop smart--be frugal
water bills are likely going up because of the drought that is starting to pick up again
our electric power was deregulated years ago and is expensive since we have little solar/wind/water powered plants in this area---
of course gasoline is expensive--holding about 4 a gal--there is no public transportation in Tarrant county unless you live in the Fort Worth city limits
(and there are MANY people who work in FTW and have to drive 20+ min a day each way to get there--some quite a bit more than that

taxes for property owners are expensive and many people's taxes were raised because the value in Tarant co has gone up---but there are also significant numbers of foreclosures in the Tarrant and Dallas co areas...and the city says that taxes receipts could drop which means reduction in city services...

we took a short vacation and drove about 4 hours south into the area around San Antonio--saw fields of corn and maize that were really dead--dried out before they were ready to harvest--crop yields won't be good from what I could see--
which means that prices for feed and corn will be higher due to scarcity...

my sister lives north of San Antonio in the country and last year she could hardly afford to buy feed for her chickens--this past month she went to a day-old bread store and bought a truck load of bread to feed her chickens--it was cheaper to buy day-old bread which is obviously made from wheat and has gone through a definite expensive process to turn it into bread--but she could buy more bread cheaper to feed her chickens than chicken feed---that seems like the ultimate absurdity...

it is a real mixed bag--there were people let go when countrywide closed shop and some of the other mortgage companies--but construction is still doing pretty well especially retail and commercial construction and some areas are seeing better home prices and strong buying (when people have a good deposit and job history)

in this area of DFW--there is big surge in gas drilling in what is called the Barnett Shale play--companies are leasing and drilling --starting to anyway--in urban areas east to about Dallas and as far west as Weatherford and beyond--they have leased and are drilling on the DFW airport land--we drive past those wells frequently--and there are wells in Keller and Fort Worth itself...people are not too happy with some of the side effects but there is lot of money for the big landowners to guys who work on the rigs or people who work for the oil/gas companies themselves...

we bought a new camry hybrid in May and they were hard to find but we saw a lot of people were buying cars--and trucks --we went into one dealership on a Saturday and every salesman had someone sitting in his office--one lot we could not get a salesman to wait on us--they were already selling someone--
but more people are going to the 2 for 1 movies that are shown on Sunday afternoon--we have seen the numbers increasing over the past months---

it is very weird really--

Last edited by loves2read; 07-16-2008 at 11:22 PM..
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Old 07-17-2008, 12:53 AM
 
Location: Texas
3,494 posts, read 14,350,736 times
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loves2read...very good post. i'm afraid that these kinds of things are being experienced throughout the country in terms of economy and subsequent lifestyle changes/choices. it's a sign of the times to come, and i think alot of people are bracing themselves for a gloomy economy. it's scary. i think alot of Americans are becoming very insecure about this all. i work with lots of surgeons/doctors and even they are talking about the effects all of this has on their life, even with their salary. i know pilots who are expressing concern about job security in the airlines-both commercial and corporate aviation.
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Old 07-17-2008, 08:39 AM
 
Location: Clear Lake, Houston TX
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Southeast Texas is booming right now with the oil & gas industry. Engineering/office jobs on the west end (Houston), and construction jobs on the east end (Golden Triangle)

A young guy, late 20's to early 30's, with the right degrees/training and 3-5 years experience (and the right connections) can easily make $1X,XXX per month. The uplifts, overtime hours, and per diems are pretty nice. And more experience, even more ca$h.

However no matter what you're into (craft or non manual), it can really wear you out.
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Old 07-17-2008, 09:25 AM
 
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but not everyone can or wants to work in the oil/gas industry--and believe me--there will come a time when that tree will shake out as well--
some people are in the right place at the right time and have lots of opportunities but for any person like that there could be two-three people who are having a negative reaction to the energy boom...

people with borderline income---retail sales, restaraunt workers, older Texans on fixed incomes are really suffering with the stock market losses, the rising prices of food, energy, and health care --farmers have rising energy costs and can't count on increased planting to bear financial harvest...

some people are really seeing a shrinking income pool and the govt wants to avoid rising wages at all costs--because if wages rise--business will have long-term inflationary costs and then it cannot ignore the specter of inflation that has been hovering over our country for the past 6 years--

anytime the $$$ falls like it has done--there is inflation--might be hard to see and feel at first if you are not dealing with foreign goods or travel--but Greenspan's easy credit and refusal to raise the Fed's interest rates caused much of the mortgage debacle and the inflationary situation---Bush is too dumb to understand what it means for middle-class and lower income Americans and too callous to care...
having him elected the second time was just the nails in the coffin...
the stock market might go up for a while but there are lots of weak piers in this foundation--including ALL THE DEBT present and future from the Iraq War-

we are going to be paying for that debacle for generations...financially and emotionally...
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Old 07-17-2008, 09:44 AM
 
Location: DFW, TX
2,935 posts, read 6,704,175 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by loves2read View Post
food is expensive--lots of articles in the local paper about how to economize--shop smart--be frugal
Depends where you are coming from. My sister just moved here from VA and is huge into frugal shopping and is always commenting how affordable groceries are here. Maybe it depends where you shop?

Quote:
our electric power was deregulated years ago and is expensive since we have little solar/wind/water powered plants in this area---
Solar or wind power is *WAY* more expensive than other options. And Texas produces more wind power than any other state, more than twice that of CA which is #2.

Quote:
of course gasoline is expensive--holding about 4 a gal
It's cheaper here than most places... about 5 states have cheaper gas than Texas.

Quote:
which means that prices for feed and corn will be higher due to scarcity...

my sister lives north of San Antonio in the country and last year she could hardly afford to buy feed for her chickens--this past month she went to a day-old bread store and bought a truck load of bread to feed her chickens--it was cheaper to buy day-old bread which is obviously made from wheat and has gone through a definite expensive process to turn it into bread--but she could buy more bread cheaper to feed her chickens than chicken feed---that seems like the ultimate absurdity...
This is thanks to the federal government's corn subsidies and ethanol mandates. Chicken producers like Pilgrim's Pride and Tyson are facing a huge crunch because of feed prices due to shortages which are largely in part due to these mandates for ethanol which is grossly inefficient.

Quote:
we bought a new camry hybrid in May and they were hard to find but we saw a lot of people were buying cars--and trucks --we went into one dealership on a Saturday and every salesman had someone sitting in his office--one lot we could not get a salesman to wait on us--they were already selling someone--
but more people are going to the 2 for 1 movies that are shown on Sunday afternoon--we have seen the numbers increasing over the past months---

it is very weird really--
I don't think it's a direct relationship to the health of the economy, but rather a measure of the overall lack of financial acumen in the general population. I meet people all the time that tell me about their new car that saves them so much money in gas... who completely neglect to realize that they spent $30k to save $500 a year.
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Old 07-17-2008, 09:47 AM
 
Location: DFW, TX
2,935 posts, read 6,704,175 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by loves2read View Post
anytime the $$$ falls like it has done--there is inflation
There has been inflation, but people are only now realizing what a farce core inflation really is... with food and energy not having been taken into account. Our inflation isn't due to a falling dollar, it's due to printing money to pay for government programs without raising revenues to support it.

In the end it's a hidden tax which hurts lower incomes way more than upper incomes... unfortunately most people don't understand finance or government enough to realize that the wool is being pulled over their eyes.
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Old 07-17-2008, 09:50 AM
 
Location: Clear Lake, Houston TX
8,376 posts, read 30,629,184 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by loves2read View Post
but not everyone can or wants to work in the oil/gas industry--and believe me--there will come a time when that tree will shake out as well--

I agree... that's why I'm concentrating on socking away most of the spoils in case the bottom drops out.

But even with the boom right now in one industry, it still supports many others. People making the money in oil & gas are most definitely spending it in other places you mentioned like retail sales & restaurants. Generally the housing market is still in good shape here, too. Apartments in the Golden Triangle are ridiculously expensive now... as much as good places around inner Houston.

I know this is not all of Texas, but still 25% of its population is down here, which is still significant. That's probably why you hear how the state is doing well. I don't think DFW is suffering either, and that's another 25% of Texas right there. Austin/SA, different story. That's what I've been told anyway.
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Old 07-17-2008, 10:06 AM
 
Location: Houston, Texas
10,447 posts, read 49,576,597 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by twojciac View Post
Depends where you are coming from. My sister just moved here from VA and is huge into frugal shopping and is always commenting how affordable groceries are here. Maybe it depends where you shop?



Solar or wind power is *WAY* more expensive than other options. And Texas produces more wind power than any other state, more than twice that of CA which is #2.



It's cheaper here than most places... about 5 states have cheaper gas than Texas.



This is thanks to the federal government's corn subsidies and ethanol mandates. Chicken producers like Pilgrim's Pride and Tyson are facing a huge crunch because of feed prices due to shortages which are largely in part due to these mandates for ethanol which is grossly inefficient.



I don't think it's a direct relationship to the health of the economy, but rather a measure of the overall lack of financial acumen in the general population. I meet people all the time that tell me about their new car that saves them so much money in gas... who completely neglect to realize that they spent $30k to save $500 a year.
Twojc I most agree with you. I have no idea at all what is going on in other parts of Texas but I do have my finger on the pulse of the Houston area. Things are doing quite well there. You never hear people even mention the word recession. Jobs are plentyfull as Texas leads the nation now in new jobs created.

There are some bright spots in America now. Texas leads the way. But there are some other areas experiencing a DEpression such as Las Vegas, Phoenix, Miami and Detroit. You want to see the beginnings of 1928 revisited then go to these places. In Vegas, one in every 44 homes are in foreclosure and getting worse. Can you comprehend those numbers? One in every 44 homes are in foreclosure. And Phoenix and Miami are not very far behind those numbers.

While Texas indeed has its own much smaller foreclosure problems, it is more due to resetting mortgage rates then from people losing jobs as in other places. And if mortgage companies would work with borrowers rather then telling them to go pound sand we would have less of this problem too.

I so believe in the southern Texas market we decided to pack it in and relocate there now. We have always knew south Texas had a bright future so we bought some beautiful lake property there years ago. It has come in handy because now we have a place to jump right into.
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Old 07-17-2008, 10:43 AM
 
430 posts, read 1,356,314 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by loves2read View Post
--farmers have rising energy costs and can't count on increased planting to bear financial harvest...
..
BWAHAHA!

What do you know?

Six dollar corn and 9 dollar wheat means a lot of rich farmers this year. My neigbor just paid off his new ( 2007) equipment with this year's wheat harvest. He just locked in his corn at $5.55 with his costs < $2 a bu. With 2000 acres of corn and a yeild @90 bu/acre - he will put over a half million dollars in cash in the bank come September. Yes, prices are up for inputs, but the demand for the crop means his gross margins are over 100% - the highest he has ever seen.
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