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One thing you are not considering. Yea, lots of walmart jobs, meijer, hotels etc. In Metro detoilet you could never buy a house on a job like that. Houses start at 150k and beyond. In the rest of the state homes can be found for 50k-70k for decent starter homes. Even if you only make 24k a year at the walmart you should be able to buy a house. I dont live anywhere near Gaylord but I do live in rural central Michigan, and the average wage in my town is very low just like what your describing in Gaylord. However home ownership is readliy available here. Many have low wage jobs, real careers are rare out here, but most people own thier homes. It is all relative, Low wages=low home cost. High wages in a big shot town= high home costs. Im not sure you live any better in fancy pants suburban Detoilet. You may make more money, but you spend all that money on housing, and fancy cars and fancy clothing. You people in southeat Michigan think your better than us hicks because you make more, and have fancy titles , but you dont live any better than we do, and you spend all your time chasing career and money. Your towns are crowded, traffic terrible and Detoilet proper is so close you can smell it. you could not pay me enough money to live there. Michigan south of I69 and east of US23 is like another world, hardly like Michigan at all.
Wow, this post just reeks of bitterness, and you sure don't sound very happy where you are. I also take great offense to your generalization of all of SE Michigan being "Detoilet". So any town south of 69 and east of 23 is crowded with terrible traffic, and you can "smell" Detroit? I live well within that little triangle in extreme SE Michigan, almost in Ohio, and where I live it is open country dotted with red barns, farm houses, and friendly country people. The skies are clear, the cost of living is cheap, and it is an all around great place to live and raise a family. Detroit proper also has many gorgeous suburbs with beautiful homes, great schools, and a great quality of life. Have you been to the area, or are you just going by what you've been told? I would put Plymouth, Northville, Bloomfield Hills, and just about anywhere else in Oakland County up against anywhere in Michigan in terms of being a terrific place to live. Troy, Rochester, Auburn Hills, and Birmingham are great towns also, not to mention the Grosse Pointes and Grosse Ile. And if the people there do spend their time "chasing career and money", then why would you care? It's their life, live and let live. Personally, I happen to be a stay at home mom who drives a four year old minivan and buys my clothes at Walmart, and I live in SE Michigan. There goes that status-chasing, rich people stereotype right out the window.
I have nothing against any part of Michigan. Even Detroit itself has positives, if you are willing to admit it. Why the bitterness towards those of us who choose to make our homes here in SE Michigan?
Last edited by canudigit; 02-18-2010 at 06:30 AM..
One thing you are not considering. Yea, lots of walmart jobs, meijer, hotels etc. In Metro detoilet you could never buy a house on a job like that. Houses start at 150k and beyond. In the rest of the state homes can be found for 50k-70k for decent starter homes. Even if you only make 24k a year at the walmart you should be able to buy a house. I dont live anywhere near Gaylord but I do live in rural central Michigan, and the average wage in my town is very low just like what your describing in Gaylord. However home ownership is readliy available here. Many have low wage jobs, real careers are rare out here, but most people own thier homes. It is all relative, Low wages=low home cost. High wages in a big shot town= high home costs. Im not sure you live any better in fancy pants suburban Detoilet. You may make more money, but you spend all that money on housing, and fancy cars and fancy clothing. You people in southeat Michigan think your better than us hicks because you make more, and have fancy titles , but you dont live any better than we do, and you spend all your time chasing career and money. Your towns are crowded, traffic terrible and Detoilet proper is so close you can smell it. you could not pay me enough money to live there. Michigan south of I69 and east of US23 is like another world, hardly like Michigan at all.
Wow you must have gotten your information out of that Toilet you mentioned.
To begin with houses in Detroit start at $1 and average about $5,800. Can you afford to buy such a hose? Outside of Detroit prices are higher, but there is a huge range from roughly the $30,000s up to virtually no limit. You can still afford a home in many areas. Although you would nto be buying a home in Bloomfield Hills, you could certainly afford to live in Redford, Warren, Romulus, etcetera.
There are high priced houses in some communities, but there are high paying jobs to go with them. If you are skilled or specially educated, you can find a high paying job if you work at it hard enough. For uneducated/unskilled positions, the only jobs that are easy to find are the part time Walmart or McDonalds positions, but that is pretty much true everywhere. However there are decent paying jobs for people with basic skills like welding, mechanics, etc.
I live 14 miles from Detroit (by water) and 27 by land. We never smell Detroit. In fact our smelliest thing around us is our chicken coop. IN our community as a whole the smelliest thing is probably the Alpaca farm (or maybe the sewage treatment ponds which smell just like your septic tank. My "Fancy" car is a 1995 Camaro and my wife drives a 1998 Dodge Caravan. Ohh and all those fancy clothes.. . . Well we buy the best that Target, K-Mart, Meiers or Salvation Army have to offer. Since I have to wear a "fancy" suit to work, we do buy suits from aa suit store from time to time.
I never have any issues with traffic even through I commute to downtown Detroit. My only PIA delay is the occaisional train the blocks a road for a while (not trains in your neck of the woods probably) and once in a while a stubborn deer will nto get out of the road when I am on my way home.
Normally I would not consider someone living out in the greater areas of Michigan a hick. IN fact, in many rural places people are better educated than in metropolitan areas (Hence Iowa has the highest literacy rate). However given the uninformed gross generalizations and spouting bulloney with no actual knowlege whatsoever, it would appear that your self imposed monicer fits the bill.
I only paid $28,500 for my home in a much more well maintained city than Gaylord.
This is still avoiding the fact that northern Michigan never had any sustainable industry. It is a weekend destination. The median income for Gaylord is 30k. Detroit is supposedly the poorest city in the country and their median income is 28k. I don't care if hosing is 50-70k, you can't afford that working part time at Walmart.
I only paid $28,500 for my home in a much more well maintained city than Gaylord.
This is still avoiding the fact that northern Michigan never had any sustainable industry. It is a weekend destination. The median income for Gaylord is 30k. Detroit is supposedly the poorest city in the country and their median income is 28k. I don't care if hosing is 50-70k, you can't afford that working part time at Walmart.
No one can afford a house in Gaylord, since they only make 30k a year. Im sure they all live in shacks on the edge of town. I think you should go back to the city, you clearly hate where you are. After all, your better educated, have a better title and most importantly you have more money than your new neighbors. They are just below you.
To be honest, northern MI is almost totally void of jobs--good jobs--culture and civilization. Young people are leaving in droves for job opportunities 'down below' or out of state. Basically, the only people who move up there are GM-Ford-Chrysler retirees, or those who live 'down below' in Detroit and go up there on the weekends. If you are younger than 50, stay away at all costs.
To be honest, northern MI is almost totally void of jobs--good jobs--culture and civilization. Young people are leaving in droves for job opportunities 'down below' or out of state. Basically, the only people who move up there are GM-Ford-Chrysler retirees, or those who live 'down below' in Detroit and go up there on the weekends. If you are younger than 50, stay away at all costs.
I don't know about that. We're under 50 (By quite a bit yet), and moved back for a couple VERY decent paying jobs. We are not the only ones either in just our little neighborhood with that same move for the same reasons.
If you want to make tons of money, follow the herd to Texas or New York or Phoenix or any of the other jam-packed big city "boomtown" crapholes. You won't make six figures in Northern Michigan, and good luck finding a job in Detroit right now.
Gaylord (yes, it IS pronounced Gaylurd) is a great town. People move there for the quality of life, not the opportunity to make a lot of money. If you value money, Northern MI is not your place. If you enjoy a slow-paced, Northern way of life with friendly people in a beautiful setting, then head for northern MI.
With all of that said, I'm not saying that Northern MI has a great economy. It certainly doesn't. 24% unemployment is nothing to rave about. I'd be on my way to the UP or far northern LP if I could find a job. I love small towns and the lifestyle of Northern Michigan and the rest of the Upper Midwest. North Dakota is as close as I can get and still be employed, so I'm going there. I could find work in Chicago or NWI, but then I would go insane. Michigan will always be my home, and I'm proud to support it.
I understand having to move to be employed because my husband is working out of state right now, but we still own a home here in SE MI. We pay taxes here on that home and all that goes into maintaining that home. We pay for the use of MI utilities, I shop here in MI for all we need to sustain. Just wondering, do you still own a home here? If not, how are you "supporting" MI? Verbally? (which is good also, just wondering if that is what you meant?)
Quote:
Originally Posted by danielj72
One thing you are not considering. Yea, lots of walmart jobs, meijer, hotels etc. In Metro detoilet you could never buy a house on a job like that. Houses start at 150k and beyond. In the rest of the state homes can be found for 50k-70k for decent starter homes. Even if you only make 24k a year at the walmart you should be able to buy a house. I dont live anywhere near Gaylord but I do live in rural central Michigan, and the average wage in my town is very low just like what your describing in Gaylord. However home ownership is readliy available here. Many have low wage jobs, real careers are rare out here, but most people own thier homes. It is all relative, Low wages=low home cost. High wages in a big shot town= high home costs. Im not sure you live any better in fancy pants suburban Detoilet. You may make more money, but you spend all that money on housing, and fancy cars and fancy clothing. You people in southeat Michigan think your better than us hicks because you make more, and have fancy titles , but you dont live any better than we do, and you spend all your time chasing career and money. Your towns are crowded, traffic terrible and Detoilet proper is so close you can smell it. you could not pay me enough money to live there. Michigan south of I69 and east of US23 is like another world, hardly like Michigan at all.
Apparently you do not venture out of your little hub, huh? Do you watch the news or read a paper about your state? If you did, you would know that you can buy an awesome home for well below 150K in SE MI. In fact, in my subdivision, which I consider very nice but not "Birmingham", homes that were purchased for over 200K are now going for 138K and lower. So, check your facts before you spout. You obviously have a twisted view of how SE MI is. There are more Salvation Armys popping up than Neiman Marcus's and they are far more busy! You sound like you have a bit of an inferiority complex. C'mon down and you will see that it is only in your head, not reality. And the only thing I smell when I go downtown is Greektown! Yum!!!
When will people in this state realize that they are all in this state together? It is one. In order to turn this economic debacle around, the WHOLE state needs to come together for the good of the WHOLE. Not just a piece. When the economy flourishes, all parts of MI benefit. Get over your paranoia that "all you people in SE MI think you are better than us hicks" and you will see it is just the same. There are all walks of life in SE MI, believe it or not!
I'm around Traverse area..we moved here a year ago (holy cow its been that long already) Husband had a job lined out before we moved, got here and it fell through. And we havent been able to find a job yet...BUT, we love it here, and we're sticking it out. We moved here and we're going stick it out..eventually it will all turn around. The whole country is in the "pits" but everyone moving here and there for this job or that job..how long until those jobs go away? or there are so many people moving there for those same jobs that they have to start laying off?
So for myself and my family...we are here for as long as possible. Yup, jobs are near to none, yup housing is tough....but we are not the only generation that has gone through this...and if you look at some of the elders who went through them...they made it okay. and we will too. All of us.
I don't know about that. We're under 50 (By quite a bit yet), and moved back for a couple VERY decent paying jobs. We are not the only ones either in just our little neighborhood with that same move for the same reasons.
I DO know about that and know what I'm talking about. I lived in West Branch for 8 years and it was almost the worst 8 yrs of my life: nothing to do, not many people my age to hang with, only minimum-wage jobs available, and the only thing there was to do for the high-school kids was to do drugs, smoke, drink (even though they were underage) and go 'mud bogging'. As a result, the teen pregnancy rate is very very high. And yes, the young people move out by the droves once they graduate from high school. Those are the FACTS. Not much to do beyond the age of 18, until retirement.
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