From: invalid@notreal.none   
      
   On Fri, 08 Sep 2006 18:30:24 GMT, "Matthew Beasley"    
   wrote:   
      
   >   
   >"Larry Caldwell"  wrote in message   
   >news:MPG.1f6a764f3cae73c989859@news.peaksky.com...   
   >> Does anyone recall the 20-something kids posting brags about their huge   
   >> tech sector paychecks back in the 90s?  Here's hoping they saved their   
   >> money, and can afford to lose their jobs during a time when it can be   
   >> difficult to sell a house and get out from under a big mortgage.   
   >>   
   >> The word is that Washington County is going to take it in the shorts   
   >> with the Intel cuts.   
   >   
   >It all depends on if migration to Oregon decreases.  At the current rate, it   
   >would only be a minor blip in the house prices.  I doubt the   
   >characterization of "difficult to sell" will occur unless there is a large   
   >recession.  What's good for many of these high tech workers is all of the   
   >firms that have moved into the Portland area during and since the last   
   >recession.  Until the mid '90s, Intel was the only silicon design company of   
   >significance in the area.  During the last rescission, many of the wafer   
   >fabs in the Portland area closed.  The facilities have been picked up by   
   >several large companies and they have relocated design centers to the Metro   
   >area.  Those that take the hit will be the operators and technicians.   
   >   
   >   
   It could be a wash.   Oregon, specifically the Portland area, still   
   has a reputation as a better value for cost-of-living than Seattle,   
   anywhere-in-California, and many other western states.  The quality of   
   life is still high.  There is still going to be a net migration from   
   certain hell hole cities on the east coast.  (Who wants to pay   
   $5000/mo. for an apartment in NYC ?)   
      
   On the westside though, I'm still seeing crappy construction projects   
   of apartments and condos, an explosion of high-density "skinny"   
   houses, a lack of desirable features such as reasonable setbacks from   
   the street and adaquate yards space for families, tightly packed   
   schools filled with the children and children of children of illegal   
   immigrants, and tight crowded roads that exceeded their design   
   capacity long ago.   
      
   Step by step, we are becoming more like China or India every day, yet   
   no one seems to speak of limits to growth or dare I say it, population   
   control limits.   
      
   I was born in the late 1950's.  True, we had no Internet, no Max   
   Trains, no SUV's and no automatic tellers, but we didn't get the   
   feeling that we were being packed in like sardines more and more, each   
   year either.   
      
   Beachcomber   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)