People best I've met. Limited good paying jobs
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2/24/2021
We moved here after living in Oregon our whole lives. Been here for 6 months and live in a middle class neighborhood. If I'm out front of the house someone was always stopping by while walking by to get to know me. Many go out of their way just to say hi. This DOES NOT happen in Oregon. I love the people and their values. One of our neighbors comes over and removes the snow from our driveway and sidewalk without ever being asked. We are not invalids either. Just neighbors helping each other. Things like this happen constantly. Surprised at the lack of competing supermarkets. Costco and Winco are relatively new here. No Kroger stores, no Safeways statewide. Over abundance of Walmarts and Sam's club. I have some concern about the low pay for jobs. Recently saw a state job that requires a bachelors and starts at $10/hr. Low housing cost helps a lot with that but everything else (plumber, electrician, roofing, food, restaurants, auto repair) seems to cost the same as in the higher income Oregon which is a concern. This obviously means that if you are going to make a good income here you need to have your own business. Residential real estate last year was in a boom and expecting a 10% appreciation this year. Not like the 20-30% we recently saw in Oregon but still monumental good news here. Concerning businesses, I'm just shocked that when you email or leave a voicemail with them that about 75% of the time they don't return the calls. Apparently they already have enough customers. I thought it had to be a fluke but it keeps happening over and over. I almost always have to call back to get a live person. This will be great when I start my business here because I will be the only one in OKC returning calls. My business will skyrocket LOL. Summarized, I don't believe that low housing costs will make up for everything else (food, utilities, contractors, etc) being the same price (as Oregon). Home insurance cost about $2600 for a $300,000 home. That tacks on an additional $175/mth (beyond Oregon insurance) to that home loan. Almost 400% more than Oregon. Sales tax 8.25% plus a "reasonable" state income tax. My property taxes were somewhat more than Oregon.
Dan | Oklahoma City, OK