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Locally speaking, the biggest difference is the strength of the local economy.Originally Posted by Irving
However, world wide, I'm not convinced that we've got that long.
Exactly what is, The Strength of the Local Economy?
My cousin and I were discussing this today.
How the hell does someone relocating afford rent, let alone a house? I doubt every business in CO is paying $15 - 30 hourly. I also wonder how the hell someone can put down as much as our house cost 20+ years ago. AND afford a $1500 - 2500 monthly mortgage.
How do you new[er] home buyers do it? Granted there's the east coast, sold their home for $3-500K buyer, but everyone? We're perplexed how people are moving in to HOMES FROM THE MID $200'S Horton builders dream.
Last edited by Great-Kazoo; 04-21-2016 at 21:00.
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"when you're happy you enjoy the melody but, when you're broken you understand the lyrics".
You ask some questions that my brothers and I ponder every once in a while. We catch up with some of our friends, and hear what they are doing and approximately what they make, and we wonder how in the hell they can afford to live in the area.
The biggest difference, and based off of what I have seen you post here, I expect this is true of you as well, we believe in paying cash for what we buy (houses are the only thing we have loans on). The rest of the world believes in making the minimum payment each month, for the length of the loan, or longer.
I was talking with one of the younger (I'm only early 30's, but he's early 20's) guys at my church a couple weeks ago, and the younger generation really has no idea how to live within their means. They live paycheck to paycheck, with little to now savings, and darn near everything on credit. They manage to lead a pretty successful looking life, from the outside, but if one thing goes awry, they are in hard times quick.
As an interesting tidbit, I got told to take a time management class back in 2007-8 (my manager thought I was wasting time and working over time just for the hours, after the class she "followed" me for a week and then apologized when she realized that I just had too much going on... Being the entirety of the firmware test department for an electronics manufacturer meant lots of work time). During that class, the instructor showed us an article from Forbes or a similar magazine, that asserted that less than 10% of the American populace could get their hands on $5000 in cash in less than 72 hours. I'd be willing to bet that less than 10% of the local Colorado populace can get their hands on $1000 in cash in 72 hours.
As for what I meant by the "strength of the local economy", I was speaking about several things.
The tech market is growing in CO. Has been for a while, but with Google pouring $100 million into the area for it's first phase construction in Boulder, there is a lot of interest/growth coming on the heels of it.
Despite my dislike for it, the marijuana market is driving things up locally. There is a tremendous amount of money in that world, and in the usually idiotic old cliche, a rising tide floats all boats.
Those who are motivated and want to, are finding a path towards debt free life with the rise in the real estate market. The current proposed sale price of my house (first house we have owned) is now more than 2x what I paid for it. We will be selling this year and buying/building with the equity and our savings.
O/G is pulled way back, however there are still a LOT of folks that are making good money in that world. The downturn is directly affecting the business that my brothers and I own, but we are finding other projects and markets to get into instead of O/G. We maintain our presence and a couple customers, but we don't expect a lot of our revenue to come from there.
Things are going well here right now for most people.
As more people move here, it drives up salaries. Companies can pay less but they will get crappy employees. The people who know they have the skills and all that- can ask for more.
I don't think this is necessarily the case for many industries (companies willing to pay more) unless you're open to relocate....I have worked for several orgs that actually applied a negative weighting for CO residents - for example, the last company I worked for applied a -20% weight based on region (e.g. same position/level for east/west coast residents paid an avg. 20% higher than for CO residents - within the same company)....
Also, I get recruiters calling/emailing all the time, and the vast majority of CO based companies/positions still seem to be paying way lower than equivalent ones in GA, NY, CA, WA, TX, NC, FL, etc. It almost feels like price-fixing, and I heard somewhere (can't confirm accuracy of this) that many local orgs stick to compensation "guidelines" from MSEC (mountain states employers council), and rarely - if ever - deviate from that....
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Last edited by DireWolf; 04-22-2016 at 01:44.
Well CO will get paid less then most of those. CA and NY are still way more expensive than here. I get paid more here in CO than I did in CA. In CA, there are so many people, that it is extremely hard to negotiate salary. When I decided to move here - it was much easier. Now granted, not all companies are the same. I was just talking in general terms.
It's not so much price-fixing as having a third-party "standard" to fall back on makes the salary negotiation more impersonal. There's less chance someone will be able to claim they were offered a lower salary due to bias when the company can point to the third party guidelines. It also gives them the freedom to deviate when needed (e.g., extraordinary demand for a particular specialized skill or person) because they are "guidelines". My company uses target points based on comparable pay for equivalent positions to allocate raises. If you're earning above the salary target point, you better be performing above the performance target point (based on supervisor ratings) or no payraise for you ...
I asked one of my neighbors who is a real estate agent with over 30 years in the local market how anyone affords buying a house here now. He said "they buy it 20 years ago".
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