Minnesota/Wisconsin (real estate, foreclosures, crime rate)

[french paris]

They both have an low unemployment rate

2 questions:


1/ What are the differente reasons who explain that ?

2/ While many people are going to South can we have a migration in future to North ?

Thanks for your answers

[green_mariner]

Originally Posted by french paris

They both have an low unemployment rate

2 questions:


1/ What are the differente reasons who explain that ?

2/ While many people are going to South can we have a migration in future to North ?

Thanks for your answers

I would say that the real estate industry isn't as strong in those states. Many of the states that have high unemployment rates also have among the highest foreclosure rates. I will use Georgia as an example. Georgia's economy was booming in the 90's. Part of it was the construction industry. Alot of people wanted to move to Georgia because of Atlanta and its jobs. Land was(and still is) abundant, cheap, and easier to build on than in California. Many were attracted for lower taxes. Construction companies cashed in. The demand for houses was high. Many of the banks, such as Bank of America and Wachovia cashed in too. There were alot of subprime mortgages given to people who could barely afford a home. When the economy went bad in 2007, the construction companies and banks felt the pressure. The real estate industry was hit hard too. Banks were hurt because alot of people couldn't pay their mortgages. The number of foreclosures went up. It became harder to sell a house because few people wanted to buy a home. The construction industry was hurt because when the economy went bad, there was less of a demand for building homes. This means less demand for construction workers. With alot of people out of work because the real estate, bank, and construction industry hurting, retail was hurt. If alot of people are out of work, less people will buy things. Many people who were working were spending less money. Where I live, an electronics store called Circuit City closed down all of its metropolitan Atlanta locations. Wachovia recently merged with Wells Fargo Bank. As a side note, Wells Fargo was bought by a Minnesota-based finance company and moved its headquarters to San Francisco. Still, Wells Fargo is doing better than Wachovia was, hence, Wells Fargo bought them out.

Wisconsin and Minnesota didn't have the rapid migration that Georgia did. For this reason, I think Minnesota and Wisconsin remained relatively stable. There are other things to factor in.

There has been a small migration of people from other Midwestern states to Minnesota and Wisconsin. At one time, there was a migration from the South to Wisconsin and Minnesota. My grandparents were part of the migration and my father was born in Milwaukee,Wisconsin. Both states did lose some jobs in manufacturing(Wisconsin moreso than Minnesota). That being said, the unemployment in these states has remained more stable than in Georgia. My opinion is that Georgia depended on things that require people to move to a place. Construction of houses requires that people want those houses. People have to come from somewhere. Right now, few people want to buy houses or can afford them.

There are advantages to living in Wisconsin and Minnesota. Both states have a lower crime rate than Georgia. Both states have better schools that Georgia. If you like to hunt and fish, you can do it in Wisconsin and Minnesota, as both of these states have alot of places to do it. Georgia does too, but with fishing, Wisconsin and Minnesota does better. Both states have more lakes and better lakes than Georgia. The lakes Georgia has are reservoirs that were formed from building dams. Wisconsin and Minnesota have thousands of natural lakes. Minnesota has the most lakes of any state.

However, not many people want to move to these states. Alot of people in Georgia don't want to deal with the bitterly cold winters in Wisconsin and Minnesota. Also, the culture in those states are different from Georgia. Some people don't want to deal with that. There might be a migration to those states, but it would be a small one, most likely from other Midwestern states such as Ohio and Michigan.

[northstar22]

I hope people don't start moving up here in droves like they did to Atlanta and other Sunbelt cities and states. It's nice the way it is.

[uptown_urbanist]

I think the reputation for harsh winters keeps some people away. On the other hand, a lot of people DO end up in Minneapolis for work; the Twin Cities are headquarters for a number of major companies. Not sure about WI, but MN is also known for its generally decent public schools. Cost of living is relatively low, too; more expensive than many places to the south, but cheaper than the big NE cities.

Minnesota was hit hard (very, very hard) by the foreclosure crisis in certain areas, but I'd agree that overall it doesn't seem to be as bad as other areas of the country. Perhaps its because it never "boomed" in the same way. Also, Minnesota's (well, at least Twin Cities; not so sure about state as a whole) economy is very diverse; it's not as dependent on specific industries as some places.

I know you asked about MN and WI when it comes to northern migration, but you may also want to consider ND; it's my understanding that Fargo has very much been a "boom town" in recent years.

A final thought: another source of current migration to MN has been immigration. I know that's true everywhere, but it's definitely very visible here. Minneapolis is now one of the cities sometimes called a modern "gateway" city. It will be interesting to see what the new census numbers show, but MN's (and not just in the cities) foreign-born population has exploded in the past decade.