[lobster5757]

Trust me,
you have no idea how good it is here. CA is a MESS. The unemployment is much higher than they are reporting, to register your car for tags, it would probably cost you $500 a year. The sales tax on everything including food, is 12% or HIGHER. A 450 sq foot rental will cost you around $900-$1000 a month. Trust me, it is much better here in MI than one might think. Other states are much worse off than MI. It is so beautiful here and the people are nice. There is always some difficulty no matter where you live, but having lived in about 6 other states, MI is honestly the best so far.

Originally Posted by TaxBait

I'd like to leave primarily due to high property tax rates and aggressive property tax valuations, poor road / infrastructure maintenance, and general hostility of state government to it's residents. Michigan is beautiful and has great resources, but of the 3 states I've lived in, it's the worst managed.

[Midas AG]

^^^^ Yeah, I'm not going to deny that there are worse states then Michigan right now, California being one of them. I do hope that MI can come out of this sooner, rather than later, but I can't afford to wait around and find out.

Originally Posted by Peter B

You are making a great decision. Seattle is wonderful place with great economy and MUCH more to offer career-wise than Michigan. The only things you'll miss from Michigan is all the hunting and cheap golf courses.

Yeah, and the cheap housing. Its like my aunt who lives out there said, "Its not perfect, maybe a little better than MI economic wise, but the beauty is unbelievable. If you need to tough it out somewhere, might as well be in Seattle area."

I know there's a little hunting out there, and well, I have no idea about the golf courses, but we'll find out. But the mountains, oceans, sounds, islands, big city/little town feel, Vancouver (which is beautiful as well). I am also that much closer to Alaska. I love Alaska and would love to spend a year or more there, but the wife isn't that big of a fan of the cold.

The one definite good thing, to me, is no more bitter cold winters and blizzards, or blazing hot 90* days with 80% humidity. I know people love that, but I like nice, temperate, average weather.

[Tyryztoll]

Originally Posted by Peter B

Northern Michigan is a nice place to vacation but as time goes on it becomes more and more clear that economically and career-speaking, the opportunities in this beautiful part of the world are WAY too limited. It is not a place to build a career and a fortune for retirement. I love it up here but it's time to go, the grass is a lot greener south of here.

Had to reply to this post, as I am beginning to completely agree.

Came up here in summer '07 with starry eyes, enthralled with the prospect of living in a place I'd only been able to vacation in before. Had sights set on meeting Ms. Right and settling down in the ol' home state.

2 years later, while the area is just as beautiful, I find myself with an employer (hospital) that is cutting my hours and slowly but surely reducing my benefits every chance they get, even though I am a licensed technologist in a direct patient care department. If I got laid off or had to leave because of the pay cuts I would have nowhere else to go, because there IS nowhere else to go within reasonable driving distance up here.

I also should have known that this is no place for a single, middle aged guy to be. All the women are either married, 200 plus lbs., or just out of high school. Many of them are ALL those things at the same time!

Unless something drastic happens in the next couple months, I have all but decided to leave this fall if I can find the job I want. I can't take another mind numbing, 6 month winter up here by myself.

I initially wanted to move downstate so I could stay in Michigan, but after a lot of research and thought, I've decided that it is just too unstable a place to be right now. Kills me, because I love it here, but I'm not going to go through the trouble of moving just to put myself in another situation such as the one I'm currently in. All my relatives in Detroit are unemployed and can't find jobs. How depressing.....I don't want to be around that. I know the economy is bad everywhere, but Michigan is so far down it isn't coming back in my lifetime. It's a disaster. I've done the rah rah routine for 2 years trying to convince myself things were going to improve here, but it aint happening.

Chicago is my first choice for my next home. It's right next door so I can come back and play whenever I want, and it's the perfect place for a single, 40 year old guy. I'm sure there's legions of folks from Michigan who'll be there to greet me if that is indeed where I wind up.

[Midas AG]

Yeah, that Petoskey, Grand Traverse Bay area is absolutely BEAUTIFUL. It is a great place to vacation, but I would agree with you on living there. Unless your still in High school, or older and married, its not the place for teenagers, or early twenty-somethings. Most people who grow up there leave the first chance they get. But I find that with almost any Vacation town, doesn't matter where it is.

It is very beautiful there, and I get that half thought of moving up there every time I drive through there.

[lovindfw]

I made a foolish career move by accepting a higher paying position up here in Michigan. We moved from Texas almost a year ago. My husband cannot find a steady job and he does not qualify for unemployment due to state laws. Turns out this was one of the worst mistakes of my life. I gave up quality of life in Texas for chasing a career dream. The job means nothing when we are all unhappy and struggling to pay the bills. Now, I am in a race to move back down south. Live and Learn. If only I had a do over...

[supermom0204]

We had to leave. My husband was only working 25-40% of the month for 6 mos and we just couldn't make it. Got a great job in Iowa, not too crazy about Iowa, but thankful to have a job. We miss Michigan terribly, but if we had stayed we would now be jobless and homeless with 2 kids.

[Tyryztoll]

Originally Posted by Midas AG

Yeah, that Petoskey, Grand Traverse Bay area is absolutely BEAUTIFUL. It is a great place to vacation, but I would agree with you on living there. Unless your still in High school, or older and married, its not the place for teenagers, or early twenty-somethings. Most people who grow up there leave the first chance they get. But I find that with almost any Vacation town, doesn't matter where it is.

It is very beautiful there, and I get that half thought of moving up there every time I drive through there.

It is beautiful, and if I were married I'd probably take my lumps at work and try to stay here forever, but it's no small task to sit through one of those winters by yourself with so little to do and no one to talk to outside of the jobsite. Messes with your mind in a big way. Just not a good place for a single person unless it's someone who covets the isolation.

[Midas AG]

Couldn't say it better, and the winters in Michigan, especially north, can be brutal.

[JGatti]

Originally Posted by Peter B

Northern Michigan is a nice place to vacation but as time goes on it becomes more and more clear that economically and career-speaking, the opportunities in this beautiful part of the world are WAY too limited. It is not a place to build a career and a fortune for retirement. I love it up here but it's time to go, the grass is a lot greener south of here.

At 42 I'm not exactly looking at a career move that is going to make me or break me no matter where I move. When my wife is done with school she will start out making about what we were making together when I was working. I view northern Michigan as a rich place to live as far as quality of life. I look back on my childhood and our visits ( even though long) were never long enough. We never ran out of things to do. I don't need a mansion, I don't need a 1/2 million dollar house on grande traverse bay. I'd be content in Traverse or even Gaylord. I have a plan and when we do decide to make a big move we'll be ready if all goes well. If not I have a plan B.
Michigan is going to recover, and I want to be here when it does. I'd rather be able to look back in 20 years and say, I was not one of the ones that just ran for the hills when things got a little rough. I know I mentioned possibly moving to Arizona. But when I read in their forums about how their kids don't go outside in the summer because of the heat.......I just don't see myself moving my kids into that kind of situation. I spoke with an older gentleman at our local pool the other day. Had his grandson from Az with him for the summer. Told me his grandson loves it here, hates it there and the boy was Az born and raised.
I'll let you know in 2 years where we end up. I'm betting TC.

[xlabel]

I'm outta here before the first snowfall going back to FL. I recently had to visit my dad down there while he was in the hospital and thought to myself ,What bad economy? I don't care what the stats say. I could hardly find a parking spot at Lowe's or Walmart and the roads are as busy as ever filled with contractors with building materials in their trucks on the way to a jobsite.

I don't care about 95 degrees and humidity; it sure beats the hell out of 5 months of frozen white tundra with no jobs. I never knew what a second interview was til I came to Michigan, in FL they see the credentials on my resume call back and say, "How soon can you start?"