I live about a mile from where I grew up. Why? Because this area has always been "home" for me. I know the area like the back of my hand. Even though 99% of this city say they would never live here (it has a bad reputation), it's home. I worked in the area for a total of 11 years, but most of my jobs have been and are a good 20 minute drive from home. I did leave the city once (not my doing: I was 13) and I came back here because it was my "home" when I was 17. Sometimes I regret not staying in BC, but I was hanging out with the wrong people and making bad decisions and while I wasn't making the best coming back here either, they were better bad decisions. I was 17! hahahaha But had I not moved back here, I wouldn't have the children and grandson I have today. I don't have a 'career" per say, it's a job. To me retail isn't a career unless you're a pharmacist. Any monkey can be a store manager. You don't have to go to college to learn that position. Most of our store managers started as cashiers or merchandisers in their late teens early 20's and worked their way up the ladder. Only a few went into head office.

Okay, I probably went off topic and I've only had 2 coffee's and no food yet, so I'm going now. Did I answer this right? LOL

Most of my career was spent near a decent-sized (not huge but not tiny) military base. If you worked for DOD or a contractor, you were golden. Otherwise, it was a "job poor" area. But it was equidistant between two "job rich" cities, so many people endured a long commute to live there. I wonder how it's faring now, with the dual impact of the pandemic and 'work from home', and recent improvements in the roads to the job rich areas. House prices are up, but then housing prices are up just about everywhere.

I would call my area job neutral. Population growth in the metro area has been pretty consistent at about 1% annually for my entire career (40 years). Over the decades there have only been a handful of very large employers in the area that employ 30-40% of the workers in my chosen field of IT.

I've lived here nearly all of my life and never had a problem finding employment but have only changed jobs three times since I moved back after a short stint on the east coast right after graduating from college. I took the position on the east coast because it was offered to me by UPS with whom I worked part time while in college. I don't regret taking the job as it offered the IT experience I wanted and needed at the time but I quickly learned that the BIG CITY rat race wasn't for me.

I will permanently relocate to our lake cabin upon retirement if not sooner.

I've only lived in large east coast cities or their suburbs, so definitely "job-rich". The career I've had in the rare book world wouldn't have been possible outside such places.

I think I didn't add enough of a focus to my original question to make it clear what I found most interesting. Speakers in the podcast spoke of job-rich areas where the robust job markets over an extended time and the lack of housing and the lack of affordable housing disproportionately affected the real estate market. Areas with numerous and diverse businesses and employers in ever growing numbers and sizes. And how problems had not been dealt with by governmental action. I'll list some of the supersites that I think were in mind:

Parts of (not just near or all of) areas in and around

Boston

NY City

Washington DC

Perhaps Dallas and Atlanta

Seattle

Portland

SF Bay Area

Phoenix (maybe?)

Los Angeles (very much just parts of) and parts of SoCal down to SD

Chicago (maybe?)

Denver (maybe?)

And certainly a few others I've overlooked mentioning.

Places becoming increasingly unaffordable for lower income people other than in sub-par neighborhoods or with long commutes. And increasingly unaffordable for first time home buyers and middle-class people.

I have only lived in job rich cities. I would and never have never hesitated to make a move based on career trajectory for myself or my spouse. I cannot imagine being tied down to a city without prospects. It would be torture for me.

When my husband and I were engaged, he had to take a six month long course in Pittsburgh. We lived in DC at the time. It was 1993 and I was able to spend a few long weekends with him there. I found much to like about the old industrial city, especially around Carnegie Mellon, but at that time, there were few jobs and you could sense the despair everywhere.

We left DC for the Bay Area where my husband went to grad school, and needless to say, the excitement of living in SV, going to a school where so many people were engaged in helping build out the internet and Web as that was exploding was fantastic. The air was electric with excitment. And not just for engineers and B-school types, but everyone else benefited from the vast opportunities as well. Designers, chefs, writers, they all had a smogasbord of choices. And because of the great jobs, fantastic people came to the Bay Area (which already had a great and diverse population.) It's been a highly stimulating environment.

Housing of course was the downside. We would get the NYT back when it still had real estate listings in the national editions and marvel at houses in Locust Valley, LI or Greenwich, Ct that cost one or two million dollars and actually looked like the proverbial million bucks.

I live in a job-rich area that has been that way since the 60’s. I can only remember one fairly short period in the late 70’s iirc when one major employer (NASA) had severe budget cuts and many people left the city during that time. There has been steady growth and a few periods of large growth.

We are currently in one of those growth spurts with housing supply exceeding demand and prices rising to higher than normal prices (for this area). The current growth is due to several factors. A couple of auto manufacturers, and some suppliers to those, have built large assembly plants on the outskirts here. The federal government has consolidated operations of some organizations and is in process of transferring up to 4000 employees here. Some have arrived in the last year and a half. Many times these workers are able to ’upgrade’ their housing from the locations from where they moved. Examples are the Washington DC metro or the California SV areas. I will say there are modest or medium-range priced homes being built (or available) as well as some higher end developments. Even existing homes arent staying on the market but a few days here. I’m sure this won’t last.

The workforce is diverse and the thoes of jobs have become diverse. What was once a primarily military base and NASA-based workforce has become much more diverse, although missile defense and NASA are still main players.

Is housing available to everyone? I’m not 100% sure but I hear all the time about efforts being made to ensure those who need housing are helped in one way or another through charitable acts or housing assistance of some sort. And I know there are efforts to account for the homeless throughout the year. There isnt a huge population of homeless and they usually are not a major problem in the city. When we have frigid weather here, many additional shelters are open for them.

outside, I hear and believe what you're saying but I suspect the locations in mind in the podcast were the very largest ones in the US, perhaps a dozen, that have had extreme growth and extreme real estate problems at all market points that might have had more substantive efforts expended to try to resolve such problems but haven't. I'm sure your area is exactly as you describe but I suspect on a much smaller scale than what was envisioned in the interview.

Elmer, I know you are correct and that was what was referenced. I was giving another view of a smaller southern city that has experienced an influx of growth from across the country. It has always been a fairly diverse area with a lot of military that liked it and settled here, but now more are finding the appeal. And our city government has done a decent job for the most part in keeping things running smoothly. Roads could be improved here, but I believe that is true almost everywhere.

Back in the '80's, when I entered the job market, Colorado Springs was job "rich", but low paying. The retired military took up a large portion of the job market & they didn't require high wages to supplement their income. Just out of college, with no job experience, grads would be competing with tenured programmers with twenty years military experience, accepting entry-level positions to get their foot in the door. Denver housing prices were the "same" as Colorado Springs, back then, but wages were higher in Denver, often double! (I'm comparing high tech jobs). My husband loved his job, didn't want to move, so I commuted to Denver, three days a week. In 1991, we purchased a nice, 7 year old custom-ultra-modern home, a doctors house, on an acre of land in Colorado Springs for the same price my Denver coworker purchased his older, needed renovating home in Highlands Ranch, with an indoor pool. Both of our homes appreciated quickly. Denver home values shot ahead of Colorado Springs by 50%....the housing boom was on! In 2013, house-flipping was a thang. I quit my job & joined in. Whole neighborhoods built in 1959 were being remodeled and flipped for huge profits. As time progressed houses built in the '80's were being purchased for flipping.....the neighborhoods were improving....there was a huge market for flipped houses. Covid hit, building materials were hard to get and people are NOW flipping new home builds. By the time a house is built, it's appreciated enough to flip for $50k more. A lot of builders are reneging on their contracts at closing and are charging $50k more to the new buyer....close or you lose your deposit.....and the contract allows for this.

Note: Housing demands are high, there's a shortage...but since interest rates are so low...the monthly payment is affordable. Rent is typically higher than a house payment by 33% - 50%. Luxury homes are suddenly in demand, because on average, they have larger lots or acreage. People want to distance themselves from others.

Been thinking more about my career spent working for Dept of Defense in an otherwise "job poor area." While I enjoyed my work, if I'd been willing to move or commute into downtown DC, my choice of workplace would have been significantly more varied. Every federal agency had a downtown office, and everyone needs support staff. My first choice would have been the National Science Foundation. They had regular lectures by visiting research scientists, and anyone who worked for NSF could apply to spend a season in Antarctica -- what a unique job experience!

Shortly before retirement, a job came open at the Smithsonian that I was well qualified for. While it would have been soooo cool to have an office in the Smithsonian's Castle on the Mall (and a bigger paycheck is always nice), the time spent trapped in big city life or worse, on the congested highways, always led me to say "nope." No regrets :-)

When I moved to San Francisco in 1972, it was job poor and housing was cheap. However, when I left at the end of 1984, things had started to change, but one of the reasons I left was that it was difficult to keep employed - and I wanted to go back to university for another degree.

When I moved to Los Angeles in February 1989, it was job rich, and that was one of the main reasons I moved here. When I had visited L.A. in the 1970s and early 1980s, it seemed a bit behind SF culturally, but by the 1990s, it seemed to have caught up, and so I felt good about staying here.

Palm Springs/Coachella Valley is job poor, but since I'm retired, that doesn't matter. Real estate is a lot cheaper here - at least in Cathedral City - but that seems to be changing also.

I left Texas for cultural/social reasons and I have no intentions of ever moving back there, unless it becomes drastically more progressive socially. Also, the scenery and climate are much better in California. Summers in Texas were brutal.

Interesting because I don't remember San Francisco housing ever being cheap (born in SF, raised in Marin). DH declined acceptance to post graduate school there in '73, housing costs being one reason (weather and the fact that it's a city were others ;) ). For what we would've paid for a crappy one bedroom SF apt, we purchased a home in a beautiful neighborhood within walking distance of a gorgeous large park and university where we enjoyed his four years of school. We took nice vacations, bought a new car, had a baby, and built up our savings during that time which we never could have done had we lived in SF.

I grew up in Los Angeles, and went to college in Santa Barbara. I remember how surreal it was to be there and watch parts of LA burn during the Rodney King riots. My first post college job was in LA, but I was already thinking of how I could get myself back to Santa Barbara, which was where my second job and all subsequent jobs have been. In theory, I gave up a job rich environment for one with less opportunities. The reality has been quite different. As it is expensive to live here, relocation is difficult, which means I have had very little competition for the roles I was interested in. At the same time technology (coming from UCSB) plus access to capital (wealthy educated retirees with $$ to invest) has meant startups and the opportunities and energy they bring with them. I also think I benefited from a smaller business community where reputation was important. I think it would have been harder for me to stand out in LA. My husband, who is an engineer, has had a similar experience. I remember when I left LA, some of my coworkers commented that I was making a "lifestyle choice". I had also assumed there would be a price to pay for moving to a smaller city, and it is odd that there wasn't.

Lynda, DH and I met at UCSB on a rooftop while watching riots below. ;)

I wonder what we can glean from the tables of states with the most/least immigrant populations? At a glance, I'd guess the states with the fewest immigrants are the most job poor, but what do I know?

Given that most states list the largest populations of immigrants from Mexico, I was a little surprised to see some where India is the place of origin. Not surprised to see Cuba for Florida, but India for Massachusetts?

I actually started looking at migration between states as pertinent to this thread, but got sidetracked. (What else is new?)

India for Massachusetts

I suspect these are medical/tech/higher ed folks, probably clustered around Boston/Cambridge.

There was rent control in San Francisco, and so the rent could be low if you stayed at one address for a long time. I lived in a three-bedroom flat a block from Dolores Park in the late 1970s, and the entire rent was $175.00 a month. If you wanted to buy, it was expensive, but I only rented and I lived in flats with roommates.

I also hated the weather in San Francisco, and it is one of the reasons I left. It is by far the coldest place I have ever lived, with a mean annual temperature of 56.4F/13.5C, compared to Houston with 69.6F/20.9C.

Los Angeles is the capital of high-end furniture mfg, and that made it the best place for me to live career-wise. Mid-price furniture is centered in North Carolina, but I was not interested in that, or the office furniture made in Michigan.

@Elmer J Fudd...That's incredible! Nothing like that here. I just checked on our first house...it's worth 4x what we paid for it. The next one is worth 8x what we paid for it. High...but not like your talking. $2 million will buy a gorgeous HUGE 6500sq ft home here, with a 4 car garage + 2 acres. Prices are rising quickly...next year that might not be possible....:0)

Nicole, You should see the amount of money that has been made in ugly, suburban office parks since the 70s. Peery/Arrillaga are two well known developers who are probably richer than your average tech billionaire.

Elmer, This came across my Twitter feed the other day. I thought you might like the answer to the question posed.

I don't understand the question or the reply, Zalco. Funny enough, look at the author's first reply, to his own comment, relating that 20% react to posts with "hmm not sure what you're talking about there". Put me into that category.

The way I saw the question Anbinder was asking, was when you consider how much underutilized land there is in the country, where do you think we could use a new major city? Alfred Twu's answer tickled my fancy with Cuppertino, MV, PA.

I am familiar with both Twu and Anbinder through one of my sons who studies urban planning as a hobby.

Anbinder is at Harvard, here is his bio. My knowing about his studies probably affects how I understood his question:

Jacob Anbinder studies the politics of American cities and suburbs in the twentieth century. His research interests include the political economy of major infrastructure projects, movements for and against change to the built environment, and the ways in which sprawl and spatial segregation create social inequities. He is a recipient of the Raymond J. Cunningham Prize from the American Historical Association and holds a bachelor of arts in history from Yale University.

Twu is a local architect with a degree from Berkeley.

OK, but I still don't understand. Is this just output from their imaginations and mental noodling?

^^^^^^^^^ Yes. Apologies for going OT.

flag the spam!

I moved to Atlanta right out of college and got a job in my field of study, but Georgia culture wasn't for me. I visited NYC and thought, "Other people get to live there, why not me?" I moved to Manhattan with no connections, no job and no apartment. It took me a year and a half of living with strangers, at a yoga ashram and in awful hotels with the bath down the hall, but I finally found a cheap apartment right in the heart of the city. I never got back into my field, worked a lot of crap jobs, and then started a small business where I had a flexible schedule and didn't have to work too hard. Having a low overhead and being kind of a minimalist has allowed me to have a wonderful lifestyle. I never really thought about job-rich areas, although I certainly ended up in one. I chose my hometown because I love it.

the spammer is back! zappo!