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Originally Posted by tennesseefan07
Hello, everyone, I'm 22 years old and looking to move from my East Tennessee home. Next month, I'll be graduating from my community college and plan on living my life in another area. I was supposed to attend the University of Tennessee for two more years, but I've decided to omit that decision and move out. Upon studying locations, I've found that North Dakota is a great place to live, apparently. I'm not sure how great the job market is, but I love the fact that there are smaller towns in the state and everything seems to be a much closer commute, opposed to how things are stretched out in my current area.
I understand everyone has their own personal bias, but I was just wondering what the best areas in North Dakota to live are? Obviously, with just an Associate's Degree, I'm not going to be qualified for a lot of jobs, but I'm hoping to get something decent. Some of the obvious things I'm wondering about includes: jobs, amenities, travel proximity, cost of living and most importantly, housing. I'm not necessarily looking to pay top dollar for housing, but I just want to stay in a quality place that has a good atmosphere.
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I was born and raised in neighboring Kentucky (western part) and have been in Grand Forks area since 1998. If you like the cold, as I do, then it is a great place.
Your post is very wide open in terms of where to go. Though improving...housing is toughest and most expensive in the oil boom and nearby locations. Minot has been experiencing much growth and its housing situation is improving though still expensive. Bismarck is a great city....growing and is the capital. I have relatives in the Minot area, but none in Bismarck area or any farther west so that part of the state is my least knowledgeable.
For eastern ND....Jamestown, Devils Lake, Valley City, Fargo and Grand Forks and all surrounding smaller areas are growing but less extreme....but due to the oil boom out west are in need of workers....especially noted in any technical/construction trade, such as A/C repair, sheet metal work, electrician, plumber, painter, you name it there is a high demand for folks to work in those trades in just about any city in ND. I also point out that Digi-Key in Thief River Falls Minnesota (about 45-1 hr northeast of Grand Forks) is hiring a lot as well ..... Digi-Key is an electronics part supplier among other things. They do have bus service for its employees who live in the Grand Forks area...so you could live in Grand Forks and then take the commuter bus to Thief River and back and not have to drive.
So yes there are many opportunities state wide for someone willing to work hard and open to taking jobs that they may not have thought of before. I know companies locally that said they would hire sheet metal workers on the spot and train them. Many young folks dont want to get into that type of work or are going west in hopes of striking it rich.
Fargo overall is the biggest metro and has more apartments and lower costs for living than any place in ND. Being a metro area of nearly 200k there are many opportunites and 3 universities in the metro area.
Grand Forks is the most college town like of any place in ND due to a high influence from the Univ of ND in town. Grand Forks has several larger employers in manufacturing, such as Cirrus (airplanes)....Simplot (potatoes)....American Crystal Sugar in East Grand Forks MN (processing sugar beets) along with other industries in the GF industrial park. Amazon is in Grand Forks too and is always hiring.....call center and processing center. Fed Ex is also here and UPS.
You should take a trip up and tour around before any move. Also other states like ND must be similar in hiring too....but ND should certainly use young people like yourself looking for work. Just dont be too choosy. Outside of oil areas....I would say wages would be similar to what it is in your region....maybe a tad tad higher but not by much.
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