Is Texas the only state not affected by the economy? (Houston: apartment, health insurance)
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If anything, I'm just glad that there is still construction going on, and that there are still bulldozers turning dirt. We still have it so good here. I've always said that this is by design that Texas is strong, and I still think it's true.
Hello, everyone I have heard some horror stories about other states in the U.S. but all I hear about in Texas is how good and strong your economy is. I am here in Wisconsin there are some jobs, but it is not booming like Texas. Is the economy really that strong there?
Things are starting a major turn down here in central Texas. Jobs going to locals who know somebody, low wages, reduced weekly hours.
If someone has a steady income or place to live they best stay where they are. Or go to Kali4neeya for benefits.
We were lucky. My husband is in the freight business (truck driver) and he had his truck stolen, so lost his job. While he was looking, he found that there were hiring freezes all over the place. Luckily he found another job, but it was a little scary for a while.
There is a lot of that going on. My husband and I were team drivers until 12 weeks ago. Freight seemed to be picking up and then bottomed out again. He's training students now so he gets a little more freight because of the student but still not getting what we used to. Drivers were just told recently that they have to have a special lock on their cargo because of the high thefts. And some disgruntled folks who lost their jobs are causing havoc by pulling the king pins of unsuspecting drivers causing them their trailers to fall when they pull away. Drivers are more cautious now, but it still happens.
we've had our tires punctured which is expensive to replace. We lease our truck so we have to pay for it out of our pockets. I understand and sympathize with those who lost their jobs but taking it out on those of us fortunate to still have one is wrong.
Nor-Tel has had major layoffs. Four members of my family worked for them, and three of them were laid off. One of my nieces may not even see her huge retirement money. Scary indeed, but they've all managed to find jobs elsewhere.
If you go to the malls, the strip malls, restaurants, lunch spots, tire stores, gimmick stores and so on you will think the economy is booming. And it is better then most all other places in America. But make no mistake, residential construction is at a dead stand still, commercial is moving along on crutches. Construction fuels so many many other parts of the economy.
When homes are not being built you now have home inspectors, carpet dealers, roofers, plummers, electricians, framers, landscapers and on down to govt municipal workers who work directly with construction trades such a building inspectors/code officials, planners, public works and on and on. Then you can take this further down the food chain to the suppliers of construction materials and those who deliver them and the salesmen who sell these materials in the supply stores. And lets not forget the Realtors who sell them are also out of work now.
If it weren't for rebuilding efforts in Galveston the remodeling industry here would also be zero.
Another gage to go by is just last Sept the Sunday paper Houston Cronicle jobs were 25 pages long. Today it is 4 pages long with a quarter of that being Engineering jobs, another quarter of them being medical, the rest being trash including spam like the mystery shoppers and outside sales meaning knocking on doors and making cold calls.
Another true sign is seeing grown men who appear to be educated standing on corners flipping advertising signs for pizza palors or apartment buildings for $40 a day. Even flipping burgers for minimum wage.
The worst is yet to come to Texas too. Mark my words !! Like some one already said, we were just came to the party late.
We are starting to have some lay-offs. The problem is that the building industry is really suffering...which causes construction workers to get laid off....freight companies are laying off because people aren't ordering as much freight....and the oil industry...well....that's the down side to low gas prices.
Those "low gas prices" are going away soon. The oil companies are being hit with huge taxes in the new budget. That is going to raise both gas prices and electric prices soon. It's NOT going to be pretty.
Nobody is immune from this thing - we are better here because the State government is a little more efficient and more business friendly, but the whole "trickle down" thing actually works. It works when things are good at the top and it works when things are bad at the top. They are bad now and will get a lot worse.
Marginal businesses will go under, stable businesses will hunker down and try to survive.
I think some massive inflation is in our future in a year or so. For those who can afford to -- now is the time to put some of those "out of work" building folks to work on personal projects. I've noticed several companies in the DFW area that normally only work with fancy home builders advertising great deals on home remodeling. Unusual.
But make no mistake, residential construction is at a dead stand still, commercial is moving along on crutches.
Fortunately, there's still residential and commercial construction going on in San Marcos. I think being a college town has helped insulate it from some of the worst problems other cities are facing.
If anything, I'm just glad that there is still construction going on, and that there are still bulldozers turning dirt. We still have it so good here. I've always said that this is by design that Texas is strong, and I still think it's true.
Well, in the Golden Triangle the big refinery projects took a massive (40-ish %) cut in December. Same went for Houston and the building projects that are going on in the inner-city. Lots of construction came to a complete standstill there.
Now, another hit just came to the Golden Triangle. This time, the cut made a lot of workers throw down their tools and leave. The incentives are no longer adequate enough for many to stay, as it has been said by multiple GF's and supers that these are some of the most unattractive projects in the country. Nobody in their right mind moved to work & live there for their leisure or health. What made people think about it was 60+ hour weeks and massive per-diems, which is now a thing of the past.
So now, we'll have to see what falls out of this and what happens in Q2 '09. If the projects don't completely stop, they will probably be going on for the next 3-5 years. It might just be a stable place for people who are willing to bust their tail for "ok" money. This area will probably never see the kind of money they saw last year, in the short-term at least.
I'll also eat my hat if Kibby's prediction regarding gas prices actually comes true. I put gasoline at a peak of 2.299 this summer.
Killer California's property tax isn't much different from that in Texas.. but don't let the facts get in the way when you push your politics.
Cal suffered from super high real estate prices while Texas benefited from oil and gas. So many people wanted to live in Cal that it had among the highest priced housing in the US - NYC and a few CT suburbs where the only areas close to Cal's big metros.
No that oil and gas prices have slipped - so is Texas however we have lots of profits saved up.
Cal will make a comeback when and if real estate prices become more affordable. Why should someone pay $500k for house in Cal that would only cost $250 in Texas? Cal does have some advantages though the best public universities such as the University of California Berkeley and to a lesser extent UCLA - UC San Diego. UT is pretty good but can't come close to Berkeley.
Cal also has horrible traffic - not that Houston is much better.
Cal also doesn' t have nice coastal towns that are reasonably priced. My house on the ocean is worth about $800k here in Rockport ( two waterfront lots) but in Cal it would cost millions -even now.
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