Any Non-Depressed Areas Along the West Coast?

February 1, 2009 4:28 AM

Please help us move...where along the West Coast is the economy still doing ok?

Mid-thirties couple considering moving out of a small town.

Is the economy craptacular everywhere along the West Coast, or are there a couple cities/counties/places that are still chugging along (if slowly?)

Or maybe a better question is: where do we NOT want to move?

We'd be looking for jobs in the service industry or shipping/transportation. We can do office accounting-type work too, but we'd rather not, if we are fortunate enough to be given the choice.

There's a slight possibility our housing might be paid for due to an unusual situation. We still gotta eat though, and pay for gas, health, and all the usual stuff. No kids. Not planning on having any.

Would prefer moving to a place where the summers aren't over 100 degrees every day, where there's a decent art/culture scene (cities or nearby cities are a plus), and the environment isn't so...stripmallish, but we'll take what we can get. The big caveat that must be in either Washington, Oregon, or most preferably, California (due to our extended families being here.)

Thanks, and hoping one day to see light at the end of this cloudy economic tunnel.

posted by The ____ of Justice to work & money (13 comments total)

How about thinking of a location you like and scouring the job sites/pages for that location? That'd tell you if the work you're looking for is available in that area...repeat until you've found somewhere suitable...get job and move there.
posted by koahiatamadl at 5:25 AM on February 1

Make sure you consider the cost of living of all the places you are moving to. While the economy may still be chugging along in some places, those places also may have a corresponding high cost of living.

The bay area is going to have a much higher cost of living than anywhere else in California, for instance.
posted by Edubya at 8:11 AM on February 1

The Bay Area is pretty much perfect, but it is more expensive than New York City.
posted by plexi at 8:59 AM on February 1 [1 favorite]

If you actually are getting your housing paid for, there is absolutely no place better than the San Francisco Bay Area.

As a bonus, salaries tend to be high in order to offset the ridiculous cost of housing.

Avoid Oregon at all costs; It was an economic wasteland long before the current situation came up. Same goes for large chunks of Washington, although the Seattle-Tacoma area seems to be doing okay.
posted by tkolar at 9:10 AM on February 1

The bay area is going to have a much higher cost of living than anywhere else in California

It also has been the least affected metropolitan area by the current economic downturn, in California. If your housing is paid for, you've eliminated the largest barrier to living here. The cost of living (in particular housing) is astronomical -- but the salaries are similarly high to make up for it.

The unemployment level is at 15 year highs -- jobs are harder to come by than they have been in a long time, everywhere. That's true of the bay area, too. But, while California is approaching a 10% unemployment rate, the Bay area is more like 7-8%, and the areas immediately surrounding SF (SF, San Mateo County, Alameda County and Marin) the rate is closer to 6% (cite)
posted by toxic at 9:58 AM on February 1

The unemployment level here in California just dropped to below that of Washington or Oregon, for the first time in... I dunno, ever? Also, the Bay Area, Los Angeles, and Seattle have been hit with record numbers of layoffs this past month or two. I know this doesn't tell you where to go, but it might help you narrow it down a bit.
posted by chez shoes at 10:33 AM on February 1

I can vouch for Ventura and Santa Barbara counties on California's Central/South Coast looking okay. Just okay. And only anecdotally. I mean, my folks were being foreclosed on and then they both got raises and promotions. My boyfriend survived a round of nasty cutbacks. There are cuts being made, though. Nobody else I know, of the 50-60 people I know here, has been laid off, and the housing market is jiggly, but those with means are buying condos with a verve. Still, it's sunshiney and not too polluted.

The numbers from November have Santa Barbara as one of the lowest rates of unemployment, Ventura/Oxnard is higher (note, Oxnard is heavily agriculturally driven) and it certainly looks like any coastal metro area is the low end of the curve which is weighted by the inland agricultural centers, bringing the average to 10ish. The cost of living is also pretty consistent up and down the coast from LA to SF, with some dips in the three big ag centers along the way (Oxnard, Santa Maria, Salinas).

My generalist opinion on this matter is, you can't really go too wrong on Caliofornia's coast. It is a very economically diverse and desirable place to live in the Western half of the country. If the legislature doesn't scuttle us, anyway!
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 10:39 AM on February 1

I'm in Portland, OR. I would disagree that Oregon was an economic wasteland before the current situation, but right now unemployment is climbing steadily (9%, I heard last week, and likely to increase). I know a lot of people look at Portland as a good place to relocate to on the West Coast, but I'd advise against it right now.
posted by DrGirlfriend at 10:59 AM on February 1

You're going to have a hard time anywhere on the west coast, but your chances for employment will be higher, I think, in coastal areas like San Francisco than interior cities like Sacramento.

I recommend that you line something up before you move, if possible.
posted by zippy at 11:59 AM on February 1

On Thursday, there was a conference about the San Francisco Bay Area's economic outlook. Two major news outlets put very different spins on the news:
SF Chronicle: Bay Area economy likely to rebound in late '09
San Jose Mercury News: Bay Area economy will get worse before it gets better

The Bay Area Council Economic Institute also posts forecasts. I don't think those forecasts are the same ones as the ones in the news above, which are from the Association of Bay Area Governments (not a great link there: either their website is out of date or they don't post the info they share at the conference).

Despite job loss, I think there are definitely jobs to be found in the Bay Area. The Bay Area has more jobs than housing ("In 2000, the number of jobs in the Bay Area exceeded the number of employed residents by over 300,000....the number of in-commuters to the region will nearly double by 2030, if more housing is not provided." Source).

Combined with your other goals (a moderate climate and interesting cultural activities) and the fact that you don't need certain things that some people do end up leaving the Bay Area to get (a stellar school system, the ability to buy an affordable home for a family), I'd say the Bay Area might be a great place for you.
posted by salvia at 1:25 PM on February 1

Really, anywhere in California is going to generally suck, due to the fun lack of budget, Governator issues, et al.
posted by jenfullmoon at 9:57 PM on February 1

Seattle's still chuggin'. If you can get your housing paid for, that might be a good choice. Weather alert: You need a high tolerance for grey skies and rain. But the foliage and flowers are beautiful!
posted by ragtimepiano at 6:02 PM on April 16

Bellingham, about ninety miles north of Seattle, might interest you. It's a university community sometimes called "Berkeley/Santa Cruz North". filled with open-minded, friendly people. The housing market is a little lower than Seattle, although jobs might be harder to find.
posted by ragtimepiano at 9:37 AM on April 17