Is Phoenix still one of the fastest growing cities? (neighborhood, income)

[new2colo]

Originally Posted by Ponderosa

I doubt they are coming to take $10 per hour jobs. Drive around a bit. You see 200K plus houses all over, millions of them. How about all the 500K plus houses in the ritzier places? Then there are all the late model cars on the freeway going to work. They can't all be selling drugs and making porn flicks. Many people are obviously making a lot more than ten bucks an hour. My own development has a median family income of about $100K per year according to the developer ads - that's more than double what even two $10 per hour jobs would bring in. In fact, salary surveys put PHX in about the middle of the pack with respect to earnings. Could we use more high paying jobs? Of course, but many do quite well here.

Late model cars are not a good measure of income. A nice car doesn't mean someone is doing well. It just means that they drive a nice car. Some people will go WELL above their means just to drive a flashy car to look like they are making it. It is easy just to get a car lease or devote a significant chunk of a paycheck toward a car payment. Also, you can't be too sure about the housing situation either. A lot of people were given mortgages that they should have never been given and they're upside down like crazy on their loans. Bust down the facade that many people put up and you would see that all isn't how it appears.

The issue here is not that many people are doing fine financially. The issue is that too many people here are not getting paid wages/salaries they deserve for the fields that they're in. It's crazy how I often I have heard people talk about the pay cut they took here when they moved here.

[Valley Native]

Originally Posted by new2colo

The issue here is not that many people are doing fine financially. The issue is that too many people here are not getting paid wages/salaries they deserve for the fields that they're in. It's crazy how I often I have heard people talk about the pay cut they took here when they moved here.

One thing that could be improved here is the wages ... however, there are certainly opportunities to make money (depending largely on the industry of course). I think there are three big factors driving down the pay scales here, and they are:
* a minimal amount of national/international corporate HQs based in Phoenix
* a fairly large retiree base which cares more about Social Security and early bird specials than the business climate
* a large number of illegal aliens who come here looking for odd jobs that pay scrap wages

Contrary to what some people have said, the lack of unions here are NOT the reason for the lower salaries. In fact, labor unions and their ridiculous demands have been one of the reasons why the Rust Belt has lost so many jobs: employers can't keep affording all the high rates of pay + all the extra benefits for widget makers, so many of them have been forced to close or move their operations elsewhere (including overseas, unfortunately). If anything, our right to work atmosphere should be an encouragement for more companies to locate here, but there are other things standing in the way of that.

[autism360]

Phoenix is growing fast.........


America

America’s 10 Fastest-Growing Cities


Forbes’ list of America’s fastest-growing cities rates the 100 most populated metros in the country based on several factors, such as the estimated rate of population growth for 2013 and 2014, year-over-year job growth for 2013, unemployment data, median salaries for local college-educated workers, and the rate of economic growth for 2013.
The following cities topped this year’s list:

1. Austin, Texas
   2013 population growth: 2.5%
2. Raleigh, N.C.
   2013 population growth: 2.15%
3. Phoenix
   2013 population growth: 1.67%

[jdahunt]

After this most brutal winter I think Phoenix is going to be attracting a higher percentage of people from the midwest.

In my area of Illinois we have already seen the most snow ever in a winter....next week we might even set a record low temperature for that day in February....may even be the coldest ave temp winter on record.....last week we had two days of near 50mph winds.....walking from the store to your car froze any exposed skin.

If this happens again next year and trends that way you will see a avalanche of people looking to move your way.

My wife returned last night from Phoenix and it was 14 here......she wanted to turn around and catch the next flight back...lol

[Maroon197]

Originally Posted by jdahunt

After this most brutal winter I think Phoenix is going to be attracting a higher percentage of people from the midwest.

In my area of Illinois we have already seen the most snow ever in a winter....next week we might even set a record low temperature for that day in February....may even be the coldest ave temp winter on record.....last week we had two days of near 50mph winds.....walking from the store to your car froze any exposed skin.

If this happens again next year and trends that way you will see a avalanche of people looking to move your way.

My wife returned last night from Phoenix and it was 14 here......she wanted to turn around and catch the next flight back...lol

The grass is always greener, I guess. Most of the arid west is suffering from higher than average winter temps and severe drought. Climate change isn't specific to cold-weather cities. Trading one set of problems for another isn't a good long-term solution for anything.

[jdahunt]

I don't know about greener....I doubt its greener in Arizona than it is in Illinois...but the warmer climate is most definately much easier on my body.

[ghdana]

I have to agree about this winter driving people to the Southwest/California. I have been trying to convince my girlfriend to move there from PA, when we finish our degrees and she hasn't been to crazy about the idea. After this winter, having multiple weeks in a row where the temperature never got above freezing, having a foot of snow come in, and then another foot before most dirt roads are plowed, super fast melting/flooding, and only 5 days of sunshine the entire month.

I can't take it anymore, and thankfully she doesn't mind the idea anymore.

It seems that most people in the Northeast consider Phoenix to be a cool/hip, growing, spread out city that has everything you're used to. People on this site often seem like they like to talk about the negatives a lot, but can only ever list off that there are some crazy conservatives and the temperature is hot in the summer.

More and more companies are moving to the Phoenix area from what I've read too. Isn't the largest office space in all of the Phoenix metro just being built right now on Tempe Town Lake? I'm sure that that will bring in a decent amount of people making decent wages too.

[corydon]

People complaining about the cold, will be complaining about the heat. That is what complainers do, always something wrong... Plus, the more cold you can tolerate the more heat you can tolerate.

And for what it is worth, if you can not afford a 500K house, but a 400K house is in your means, you listened to much to a mortgage salesman.
It is becoming like L A, 3% is millionaire, the other 97% lives like a millionaire......
I drive a 17 year old car, live in a single wide, but have an outstanding retirement plan going and put a lot of money in the bank weekly.....
Folks at work are laughing at me, except for one guy, and he owns the extremely successful place.

[jdahunt]

Originally Posted by corydon

Plus, the more cold you can tolerate the more heat you can tolerate.

Its not an issue of what you can or cannot tolerate, more to do with what you enjoy and being in a position to do something about it.

When I was younger I loved the cold due to the hunting and outdoor activities that came with it....now at 49 I find myself enjoying it less and less. I have "suffered" through the hottest times that Phoenix can throw at you and have found it much more enjoyable even when they throw in the occasional "haboob"...lol.

We totally enjoy our vacation home in the Phoenix area.....my big problem now is my midwest family trying to make it their winter vacation home....lol......funny thing...not one of my family members call about visiting me in Illinois in the middle of the winter season.

[pgc323]

The population is aging, and when retired people move for a climate change they usually head south rather than north.