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Where's your place in Florida? Is it worth keeping or staying there? I certainly grew weary of Orlando...it's crazy here, the heat, inconsiderate and idiotic drivers and certain people in general.
It's in Clearwater. Very nice area and I'll probably keep it. I really look forward to getting away from all the traffic and congestion though. Not sure where we'll end up exactly but somewhere in the Rockford area. Maybe even out to the west around Pecatonica or Winnebago. Haven't fully decided yet. I just want to be somewhere that I can have an acre or two and be out of the rat race.
As for why I think Arizona might not be such a great place. Someone else already hit on some of the problems regarding housing and jobs. Being a non recourse state means you guys have a boatload of foreclosures still coming down the pike too. Plus, as the Mexican economy falls deeper into recession/depression and the drug cartels assume more and more power, Arizona is a little closer to the frontlines than I care to be.
Great jobs in AZ arent very abundant to begin with, and in a bad recession as we're currently in, finding another equal job is much harder in some places like AZ. Homes in AZ also led the nation in value depreciation. There were stories of people losing up to 35% of the value of their home. And its quite true that when things get bad that youre not safe anywhere, but IL is safer than AZ, and the statistics show that. Homes in my area have lost 5% value in the last 1.5 years.
I agree but... Rockford isnt the best place to get a job I would even go as far as saying its equal to getting a job in Lake Havasu both do not offer good paying jobs. The plus about Rockford is you can commute to a larger city that would have a better paying job.
No commutting from Havasu. If you have lost only 35% of the value of your home from the peak in AZ you have done very well, its more like 50% off the peak. I would rather be in AZ if times got real bad because we can carry weapons and defend ourselves. Yeah I know it will not matter!!!
Im not sure how high the run up was on housing in your area but I do know Rockford did not have the large run up so it will not fall as much. I do know the house I sold in Roscoe 2 years ago for $159,000 is now worth about $140,000 thats what other simular homes are going for.
Sorry to hi-jack the thread
I'm flying to back to Rockford again tomorrow for a few days to really survey the situation and get a feel for the area again. No matter what it will be fun seeing old friends, family and my childhood stomping grounds.
Hopefully if things work out I will be bringing an exciting new industry to town.
I'll post back when I return to give my impressions.
I'm flying to back to Rockford again tomorrow for a few days to really survey the situation and get a feel for the area again. No matter what it will be fun seeing old friends, family and my childhood stomping grounds.
Hopefully if things work out I will be bringing an exciting new industry to town.
I'll post back when I return to give my impressions.
Nice. I like the area right off Old School Bell Rd. or Rt. 20, or just right outside the Cherry Vale Mall. Hope you find it as expected, but curious to hear your impressions.
Got back today from my trip to Rockford. During my stay I must have driven 1000 miles. Okay, maybe not 1000, but I went everywhere from Belvidere to Pecatonica to New Milford to Beloit.
I feel very comfortable saying that if I where to move to Rockford tomorrow I'd have a darn good idea of what I was getting into.
Here are some randon observations and opinions of mine in no particular order:
1. If you're black (i'm not) forget about it. You'd stand a better chance in the pre-lincoln area than Rockford 2009. My friends and aquaintances in Rockford are the movers and shakers of the community. If you're at all familar with Rockford you can probably guess who some of them are. Anyway, having lived in Florida for almost 20 years I was kind of shocked by their open and unabashed dislike of blacks. To sum up the overall attitude I'd say they feel blacks are lazy, welfare seeking parasites. Interestly enough, the one black person I spent time with, a very successful women, pretty much had the same opinion. None of this was solicited by the way. But everytime I brought up the idea of starting a business the immediate advice was, "just don't hire blacks or you'll regret it because they're nothing but lazy, lying, stealing, conniving, looking for a handout, pieces of ****.
2. The NW side of Rockford where I grew up hasn't changed a lot over the years as far as looks. The overall condition of the homes,streets and such has changed a lot however and not for the better. The sense is of lower income maybe even poverty. No nice stores for example.
3. The far west and SW parts haven't changed much at all. I presume this is where most of the crime takes place because in all the driving I did over 4 days this was the only area I saw police cars. In fact, the lack of police presence in the rest of Rockford was startling to me since here in Florida the police are everywhere 24/7.
4. There are 2 Rockfords. When I grew up Rockford was east side/ west side with the dividing line being the Rock River. Today that line, imo, is Alpine Rd. The difference in how people live east and west of Alpine is stunning.
5. Most of the newer developments on the far east side/Rockton/Roscoe/Belvidere, etc. are pretty poorly built and designed. Mostly cookie cutter types squeezed together. I personally know one of the developers who is responsible for the much of the growth in the last 20 years and he wouldn't really disagree. I toured some of the new developments east of Perryville with him and it was really interesting hearing some of the tricks used to make the houses look bigger and classier.
6. Most people I know are scared to death of the public school system, and the recent hiring of a black woman to run the school system is proof enough to them that there is no hope for public education in Rockford.
7. Rockford, is still basically run by the same families as before. Now maybe it's the son who's in charge, but the last names are still the same. And, as always, if you don't run with this crowd you're at a severe disadvantage. I feel lucky to be close friends with some of the guys at the top of the totem pole, but I'm not sure it's a such a good thing for the city overall to be shaped by such a relatively small group.
8. There are 3 ways to make a lot of money in Rockford and that hasn't changed over the years. Own a business, be a doctor, be a lawyer. That's in stark contrast to Florida, imo. I've had many sales reps make 100K+ in a year and some well over 200K. I've even seen non owners become millionaries. I doubt very much that there are many people in Rockford with a 6 figure income who aren't in 1 of those 3 catagories.
9. The amount of wealth that the wealthy in Rockford have is mindnumbing. I spent time at a 400 acre, 20,000 sq/ft estate that has a $2m garage housing several million in classic cars. Another had just flown in from Florida on his Gulfstream. I heard how one guy had just gotten a $150m line of credit from the bank. (so much for the credit crisis, lol). I had dinner with a Doctor/Lawyer couple who told me even though they were worth $5m they felt poor compared to their friends and they weren't crying, they were dead serious. While there is a lot of wealth in Florida it seems much more spread out, and while there are clicks it's nothing like Rockford.
10. If the wealthy people like you, i.e. think you're ambitious/smart/etc. they will bend over backwards to help you and are extremely generous. Almost to the point of making you feel uncomfortable. I hear an old friend of mine bought his housekeeper at 300K home, pays all the taxes and repairs, bought her a new car and paid all the bills for her 3 kids to go to college and has helped the 2 that have graduated get great jobs. I was told repeatedly that if I started my business in Rockford not to worry. I was offered homes to live in until I found one I liked to buy. I was offered to build any home I wanted at cost. I heard many stories of generosity and of the "money crowd" giving great opportunities to people outside the loop who impressed them one way or another.
11. There are no jobs in Rockford. The Sunday paper probably had 15-20 jobs max and none were even close to being "real" jobs.
12. This city needs to change and change fast. The manufactoring base is dead and buried. I can't imagine how a great number of people, especially non-professionals, will survive going forward.
13. The lack of industry diversification is obvious. The signs of medical, legal and building industries are everywhere you turn. But, there's not much else besides franchise's which are also everywhere. I kept asking, how do people who aren't doctor's, lawyer's or indian chiefs feed themselves and was consistantly told they commute to the burbs. I even saw where there were rows of cars parked out on Riverside and also Bell School (i think) of car pooler's. I guess they meet in these spots and then car pool to work. I'm told that's who lives in many of the newer houses on the far east side.
14. Even the worst area's of town pale in comparison to many areas here in Tampa bay. The idea of Rockford being gang ridden and full of crime is baloney. I drove through places like S. Main, W. State, Central and so forth well after 10pm and saw nothing happening. There's a lot of places down here I wouldn't drive through at 10am without being concerned. I suppose crime is worse than before but the notion of Rockford having a crome problem must come from people who haven't lived outside the area.
15. The women are god forsaken ugly. I'm a married man close to 50 so it doesn't matter, but geesh, after living in Florida I guess I've been conditioned to seeing attractive, if not stunning, women on a regular basis. I never though much of it until it dawned on me after about 3 days that I hadn't seen an overly attractive women yet. I don't think I saw one set of fake boobs either. Not sure if that's good or bad, but it sure is different..LOL!
16. Nobody drives a nice car. What a change. I saw a few BMW's and maybe a couple of Benz's but thats about it. No Porsche's, Hummer's or even top line Lexus SUV's. Cripes! Even the rich people drive Jeep Wrangler's and American made sedans. If I do this I'm either going to have to buy a Rockford car or stick out like a sore thumb. It was strongly suggested, btw, that I should change car brands though it was said jokingly.
17. There is a higher perecentage Rednecks in the Midwest than in Florida by far.
18. I sort of remember Rockford as being a place where the average person was a cut above the norm. Judging from my experience I'm not sure that's true anymore. Outside of the circle I was associating with it didn't look good. My exeriences at restaurants, stores and just talking to people as I came across them (I like people) made me wonder if I could find the people I need to make my business work. As of now, this is my biggest concern. Can I find enough smart, clever, confident, highly motivated and agressive people? People who really believe they can make big bucks and are willing to go for it. I'm hoping, if nothing else, my expiriences and leadership abilities can help create a few superstars. I only need 15-20 to really get rolling but I suspect it may take going through 500 and some time to find them.
19. If you live in the right areas Rockford is a pretty damn nice place to raise a family. I suppose thats true everywhere, but I've yet to find anyplace that you can buy that for so cheap. I saw some very nice, well built, maticulously maintianed, abiet older, homes for 150K-200K. These homes were in great neighborhoods, with large yards too. You can get brand new or homes in the newer area for well uner 200K also, though they didn't do much for me.
20. Rockford has it's good and bad points. The nice thing is if you can afford to live in the better areas you really never have any reason to travel into to the lesser areas. You can actually live in one Rockford and not ever experience the other Rockford. I traveled west with 3 different people at different times. As we were driving through downtown, out west, NW , etc, they all commented about how they hadn't been in those areas for years. But I would think that with a family income of 75-80K and some decent money management the "good" Rockford is attainable.
IMO, the worst part about Rockford is the lack of employment opportunities. In Florida, at the very least, if you can sell you can make a real nice living. I didn't see that in Rockford at all. Instead I saw a lot of companies tied to what used to be the core of the economy. Everyone is trying to make something and way too many are heavily dependant on industries that are dying out; especially auto's and machinery. Rockford needs to get out of the 60's and into the 21st century and fast. Even many of the rich people are stuck in the past. Their ideas made them tons of money but they're old ideas. Manufactoring is not the end all and clinging to it as a solution means almost certain death. The idea that the economy can't recover until the auto industry does was something I heard more than once. To me that's bull****. And even if auto's do recover it's not going to help Rockford much because the days of the American car company are numbered and it doesn't matter how many people in Rockford by one the rest of the country knows Hondas, Toyotas and even Hyundia's are a better deal.
Traderx Very nice post about Rockford you hit everything from the good to the bad. I wont go on and on about how I feel about the place all anyone needs to do is read Traderx post and that sums up Rockford. So the question is this... Are you moving there?
I grew up in Rockford and left in 1980 because all the jobs were going away. You would have thought that almost 30 years ago they would have at least started to do something to attract new business.
Undecided as of this moment, but I'm leaning towards giving it a go. I have the opportunity to acquire free office space to start a business, but there's still some details I need to work out before I make the commitment.
Thanks for the thorough assessment of Rockford. I will take into account it's your opinion, but it somewhat reflects my feelings when I was scanning the area over there myself. The only thing it has going is the low cost of housing, where you can get a decent house for the price, but if there are no jobs or an active economy, how are you going to get people to live there? You're right, things seem to be still stuck to the past as I was living in neighboring Belvidere. I am a minority, so I'm kind of glad I didn't make the decision to buy there despite how appealing housing prices were. It may be worth a shot to you to try, but hopefully the local economy would improve and would bring some more development overall, so at least it could be a "second city" to Chicago. I'm curious what business you're thinking of going into, if you want to let me know, just PM me but you wouldn't have to disclose too much. I'm moving in IL in a couple years, and would have to consider finding work or helping establish startups, as I work with information technology (computer, networks, websites, etc.).
Very nice assessment of Rockford, Traderx!! My grandparents lived in WI not far from Rockford when I was a kid. I haven't been to Rockford in recent years, so I was wondering how things are around there these days. It sounds like Rockford is doing as well as most places these days, and has the same set of issues we are seeing everywhere in the midwest these days.
I'm interested in what type of a business you're thinking about establishing in greater Rockford. If you end up relocating to Rockford, PM me, and I'll send you a resume and so forth. I've always liked NW Illinois/SW Wisconsin, and would relocate from Ohio to Rockford in a heartbeat if the right career opportunity materialized.
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And its quite true that when things get bad that youre not safe anywhere, but IL is safer than AZ, and the statistics show that. Homes in my area have lost 5% value in the last 1.5 years.
