Places No One Wants to Move To

[hiknapster]

I think this is a great thread, also. I came from a small town in New England. Unfortunately, it is very expensive to live there. I lived in Florida for nine years and the crime and overcrowding, plus the housing and cost of living, had us running for the hills of Knoxville, TN.

I've been here 17 months and I'm starting to regret it. There just are too many people from Florida and elsewhere moving in. It's starting to look overcrowded and it isn't very laid back anymore. There are a lot of snippy transplants here, the ONE thing I wanted to avoid more than anything.

Fortunately, we don't own a house. Never have. But I'm starting to look elsewhere, too.

[MattDen]

Originally Posted by DaninEGF

Excuse me....that is not true. Grand Forks and East Grand Forks have set record years for building permits for single family homes for the past 2-3 years in a row...with commercial permits also setting records. The cities have rebounded from the devasting flood of 97. Areas north along the Red have held their own....with Grafton attracting a Marvin windows manufacturing plant and adding people. Pembina itself has had issues with the bus plant but that is a business thing not a problem with the city itself.

I am not saying the area is booming like other areas near bigger metro centers....that will not occur....but the area is far from stagnating. North Dakota economy is the healthiest it has been in 40 years plus. True very small towns will continue to loose population but that isnt due to the area being a bad place to live...family farms over the years have dwindled and to make ends meet farmers need larger and larger farmland. Thus you have fewer and fewer people in those town and less opportunites for employment, which are much better found in the bigger cities.

Dan, proud to be in "Grand Cities"

Grand Forks is gaining some people, but not many. It went from 49,321
in 2000 to 49,792 people in 2005 according to census. Which is slight growth but not much.
Grand Forks County even had a population decline 66,109 in 2000 to 65,940 in 2005 according to census.
East Grand Forks has actually gained people since 2000: 7,501 to 7,734 which is about a 3% growth rate in 5 years, I would venture its because of the lower property taxes on the Minnesota side. But then again I heard North Dakota is trying to decrease those astronomical property taxes they have, to be competitive with Minnesota.



The economy in Grand Forks is basically heavily dependent on the university and canadian shoppers. I did look at the numbers from Census and Bureau of Labor statistics and interestingly in Grand Forks since 2000 the economy has went from 47,800 employment to 53,500 employment which is an increase of 12%!

Cavalier County went from 6,064 in 1990 to 4,330 in 2005. Thats about 28% I think on population loss since 1990.
Pembina County went from 9,238 in 1990 to 8,038 in 2005
That is some very large population declines.

In regards to the economy in North Dakota it is much stronger out towards Williston then in Grand Forks and Fargo. Grand Forks might have a low unemployment rate and very high job growth but its wage scale is very low and the cost of apartment/housing is not low enough to make up for it. The area has had tremendous job growth but wages are still very low compared to the national average.

Grand Forks has a very low wage scale overall the average wage per job is
28,967 in 2005, 25,748 in Cavalier County and Pembina County was a little better at 29,963. The national average is 40,146 per job in 2005.

[le7m2d6]

More people are moving out of Truth or Consequences, New Mexico than moving in because it is listed with the US government as the worst small small town in America to live it and raise a family because of the high crime rate and the city government is 82% corrupt as well as 41% of the businesses in town are used for money laundering by organized crime.
There is also at least 1500 persons hiding out from the law here including 40 sex offenders not registed and protected by the corrupt law enforcement community where two former mayors were former felons (one had been a convicted child molester) and even a chief of police had been a convicted felon. A former sheriff was a murderer who killed one of his own officers who had evidence to convict him on murder, then made the crime appear to be an accident to cover up the murder and got away with it and he is now a US federal marshall in Iraq teaching Iragis how to become police officers. One judge nearly went to prison for racketeering. When people moving in to the community find out the truth of this wicked town they move right back out.
I am a former lawman who worked for the government and saw first hand these things unfolding.