Sunday, August 29, 2010

Great Recession Geography: Relatively Texas

The new Rust Belt contrasted with good times in Texas:

In less than 20 years, Texas’ financial foundation has diversified around the gas-and-oil-driven anchor that crashed in the 1980s and now stands as the 12th largest economy in the world, Combs said, noting the Lone Star state offers a much higher degree of diversity than either Mexico or Canada.

On the employment front, she said, Texas’ unemployment rate has either matched or been lower than the nation’s jobless rate for the past 43 months. It’s now about 8.2 percent, compared to 9.5 nationally.

And then there’s the foreclosure rate, which stands at 1 in 819 mortgages statewide, compared with 1 in 82 in Nevada, 1 in 167 in Arizona, 1 in 171 in Florida and 1 in 200 in California.

“They’re having a very miserable time in those states,” she said.

If you are a Rust Belt refugee now living in California, Nevada, Arizona, and Florida; then best get out while the getting is good.

4 comments:

rootvg said...

"If you are a Rust Belt refugee now living in California, Nevada, Arizona, and Florida; then best get out while the getting is good."

That's stupid. Why would Austin be building billions of dollars in brand new toll roads if they were going to collapse in the next five years?

Have you seen this?

http://www.ntta.org/AboutUs/Projects

Why would they be building all that stuff without plans for huge growth?

How about this?

http://baybridgeinfo.org

Why would they be planning to roughly double the capacity of the Bay Bridge if the region was a dead man walking?

You don't understand your subject matter. You don't understand that Rust Belt problems are primarily due to demographics and then a risk averse culture that no one there wants to change. That's why the place never grows even in the good times. Dallas and Atlanta and Nevada (and even California) will grow again. The weather is nice and the demographic trends are positive and there's simply too much human capital in all of those places to ignore.

Jim Russell said...

I think all the folks streaming out of California, Nevada, Arizona, and Florida should move to Texas. You didn't read my post all that closely.

Go fish.

rootvg said...

A lot of them ARE moving to Texas. What do you think Austin is?

They're streaming out of Florida because the cost of living there is getting high. Florida used to be cheap but no more.

Northern Nevada is hot for people running from California taxes. It's just about the number one place for upper middle class Californians to build vacation homes. A previous flight instructor of mine spends six months of the year there flying his glider.

California isn't going to die but it also isn't going to be for the middle class anymore. Having said that, it's a gorgeous place and we have good jobs here and I can fly almost twelve months of the year. We'd be crazy to leave.

There's no way to fix what's wrong back home without difficult choices no one there either wants to make or can even afford to advocate because of the political situation. You HAVE to get rid of the unions. You HAVE to get rid of the blue collar, class hatred ridden culture. You HAVE to get rid of old men running things the old way and people who think like them. You HAVE to drastically improve primary and secondary education.

Most importantly, you HAVE to get rid of the notion there that anyone who sits at a desk for a living is stealing. It's not 1965!

Jim Russell said...

This post isn't about moving to the Rust Belt. It is about how well Texas is doing relative to California, Nevada, Arizona, and Florida.

Take your ax-grinding someplace else.