Should I relocate to Michigan? (Phoenix, Scottsdale: taxes, to live, prices)

[cade-liam]

Originally Posted by topjimmy

Wait until they get divorced and she moves back.

Save some room in your house so she will have a place to put her stuff when she gets back.

You are so optomistic and funny!

[Great Joy]

Originally Posted by PhxGal07

Thank you all for your thoughts. I have made my decision to stay put. I did a lot of research plus considering opinions and knowledge of the state, I definitely think it is not wise to move. I think my daughter may not make the move after I gave her all the facts. Plus, they may move there and then pick up and go somewhere else and I'd be stuck. I DO MISS BROOKLYN THOUGH! SOMEONE STOP ME FROM WANTING TO MOVE BACK HOME TO BROOKLY (Brooklyn Blues come and go)!!!

PhxGal, I think you made the right decision to stay put (for now). My parents had considered moving to where we were, but due to a job transfer we moved to another state. If they had bought, they would have been trying to move again too. Looking back, it was smart of them to stay at their home base. If I were you, I would wait until your daughter and son-in-law decide where to plant themselves for a long time before considering it again. Besides, you can get good perks from the airlines if you fly frequently.

[steve22]

Originally Posted by FastFerrari

goto Michigan..2 of brothers where born there...my parents lived there for a number of years...Detroit..and Kalimazoo...and o yeah home of the Michigan Wolverines....take pics and send plz...lol

K-zoo rocks... man, what a fun town that is.

And Traverse City, FWIW, despite the winters, is gorgeous. Very nice, friendly town w/ tons to see & do, plus the lake & world-famous golf courses... great if you can afford it, which gets harder and harder all the time. No doubt about it, if I ever had to live in MI again, the Traverse City- Harbor Springs- Petoskey area is where I'd want to be.

[Lovegun]

It has it ups and downs.

I am from Michigan so know off hand that unless you live in Detroit Metro its going to be hard to find a career that pays decent. Traffic, god awful summers, rude people, no real seasons, no green, high insurance/registration...just to name a few downfalls to Phoenix compared to Michigan.

Originally Posted by dmiller01

I'm sorry but why would you want to leave Phoenix, a high paying/high growth area full of opportunities, for a state with a shrinking economic and population base. As beautiful as Michigan may be, you have to be practical and consider your future. This includes the amount of money you can earn and invest to ensure a nice lifestyle for yourself after retirement.

[PJ2483]

Hey Phoenix Gal,

I would stay in Arizona, I just moved back to Traverse City, MI from Texas. I liked Texas, but I think arizona has more beauty and diversity. Anyways, I will put it this way, I have been here a week and I am ready for the warm weather and sunshine! Alot can be said for warm sunny days! Everyone gets depressed in michigan due to a lack of sunshine and a bad economy. The only thing I would miss in michigan is the water, but nothing else!

Hope this helps and good luck!

[wagonproject]

Ill trade you! MI for AZ! I want to get out of here and am looking at Phoenix!

[starchief5]

Originally Posted by topjimmy

Wait until they get divorced and she moves back.

Save some room in your house so she will have a place to put her stuff when she gets back.

Hey Jimmy, they ALWAYS come back - and usually with several more people than they left with.

[The_Cadillac_Lawyer]

Send out two hundred resumes and check back with us to see how that worked out for ya! MI economy is horrid

[steve22]

Originally Posted by trudawg

Send out two hundred resumes and check back with us to see how that worked out for ya! MI economy is horrid

IMO, MI's horrid economy is really just the bellwether for what has happened or is about to happen everywhere across the country. In case you haven't been keeping up, there are about 45 out of 50 states in the union now whose economies are officially in recession, and AZ is among them for what it's worth. MI has had it far worse and for far longer than anywhere else, but that may mean that they're also one of the first to recover. I wouldn't count on things being very rosy economically speaking in AZ or anywhere else in the desert southwest going forward, particularly given the reliance of the economy in this region on growth and construction for vitality. That sector of the economy has hit the skids big-time and is in for some serious hard times to come.

Really, without getting into the details of it and writing a really long-winded post, the biggest factor right now dragging the economy down is the fact that we've become so dependent on the consumer sector to drive the economy- about 70% by most estimates. Comparing our consumer spending rate with the GDP, it's easy to see why we're in such dire straits: we consume far more than we produce and spend far more than we earn. Net output is far greater than net input, to simplify it. That's a road to nowhere, as we're finding out.

As a nation, we can't continue to be the default consumers of the rest of the world's goods ad infinitum without producing an equal amount of anything worthwhile in return, living the good life on credit without actually creating anything which would pay the bills back one day. In order to really get this country's economy back on stable footing again, we need to contract the absurd overemphasis on consumerism in the economy and start producing again- manufacturing, in other words. As far as I know, there isn't much in the desert southwest that produces anything besides houses. Not much in the way of natural resources either, unless the abundant solar power can eventually be harnessed. The rust belt, including the auto industry, actually produces something that contributes to the GDP- and the importance of that will become very important in the near future as the nation attempts to recover economically. Add to that the abundant resources in that part of the country, particularly the vast supply of fresh water, and I foresee a recipe for a major economic and demographic shift back toward that geographic region of the nation in the near future.

Incidentally, the above rant essentially outlines the reaons why I actually would favor bailing out the auto companies- I wouldn't favor bailing out much of anything else they've approved this absurd amount of taxpayer money for- especially financial institutions, since they don't produce anything other than the fragile smoke-and-mirrors paper foundation of the economy we've been supported by in recent years that's completely caved in. Financial institutions contribute zero to the GDP. The auto industry produces goods that account for about 14% of the national GDP. It's not a huge amount, but if you're trying to get back to 50-50, losing any ground is a step in the wrong direction.

[amatrine]

We almost moved to Michigan, but my husbands job transfer fell through.
They had a hiring freeze up there.

With the economy the way it is , I would stay here.
People are leaving there in droves.

You do not know if your job would be there tomorrow. The same here, but its much worse there.

ama