oklahoma city

[CottageFarm]

Mr. CF is thinkin it might be time to move and he's been lookng at Oklahoma City area.
Any info about construction market, avg housng costs, general atmosphere of the area, weather, or anything else that would be good to know, would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Limomike]

Here is some info on the OKC area. http://www.okcchamber.com/index.php?sub ... lahomaCity My sis lives around the Edmond area, its rather pricy for homes, but well developed if you are looking to live in neighborhoods. I would stay out of the inner city though.. its been taken over.. if you know what I mean.
Also alot of development down around the Moore area on the way to Norman. More of the rural areas are around Mustang, El Reno, Tuttle, Yukon.
Here is another site you may want to look at: http://money.cnn.com/magazines/moneymag ... 55000.html

Keep in mind, that south & western part of the state is in an extreme, or exceptional drought period right now. (but so is most of the state too)

 

[Commercialfarmer]

Why are you looking to move if you don't mind saying? I wouldn't mind moving back to CO some day. How about we just trade

You might want to see what happens with all the fracking stuff and the EPA. A large part of our economy is based on it. We weren't hurt as bad as most of the country during the recession, but if they start putting the squeeze on fracking, I don't know what is going to happen. I was very young, but I remember the bust of the 80's and it wasn't pretty.

Housing has slowed down some, but there is still some expansion going on.

Weather: The thing about central and especially western OK is the wind. It is just miserable. Easter part of the state isn't nearly as bad. When I'm in Fort Worth and they give a wind advisory because it is going to be 20 mph, it cracks me up.

As was mentioned- Edmond, Deer Creek area is the swanky area at the moment. Yukon/Mustang area is still growing.

I think OKC is a better bet than Tulsa right now, I think it will have the brighter future. You didn't ask, but if you consider it, I think there is a lot more money to be made in Texas. Not having a state income tax makes a difference in disposable income and you can see it. Land is significantly higher though.

Edited to add:

Housing cost are much cheaper here than in CO. When I was in Denver, a house would cost 200k, a house with a roof 250k, and then went up from there. Here, you can find much nicer homes for the money. That may not be what you are looking for if your into construction. Zillow would probably give you a good idea of the area.

 

[CottageFarm]

Thank you for the links Mike. They're helpful.

C-farmer - Mr. CF is getting tired of the lack of good work around here. Nobody's doing much remodel (our specialty) for a number of very valid reasons. What little is going on in new construction is hack tract work that the generals don't want to pay anything for. For example, the last few guys he talked to were willing to pay a whopping $10-$15 door on interior doors, including cased both sides. They don't care much about quality so they'll get people to do it. I don't think it's going to much different anywhere else, but I want Mr. CF to be happy. We love alot about Colorado, but there's lot's to be frustrated about, too.

I noticed the wind in the forecasts. That could be a deal breaker. We were doing most of our work in Wyoming for several years and that was the one major thing that kept us from moving there.

We've talked about TX several times. I have a brother in the Houston area. We haven't completely ruled it out but we spent many years in Phoenix and don't want to go back to heat. And I hate humidity.

That's a very valid point about fracking. They've already killed it here. If it happens there, yes it will likely kill any construction rebound. And yes, they will kill it any way they can. Here it was a revocation on lease lands.

 

[Calman]

I don't know so much about OK city exept it seems like it's a real good tornado magnent.

Cal

 

[Fly-guy]

cf,

The bad news, the wind is definately gonna blow in the OKC area. The good news, gas prices are much lower than Kansas and Colorado.

My advise is to look for some place that is hilly with lots of trees. Here at our place the wind might be blowing hard but the hills and trees keep it from disturbing us at ground level.

I've been ruined with the climate as it is much milder here than it was back in western Kansas. One more piece of free advise, if you move down here do it in the winter time because you won't be effected by the humidity as much as you would be in the summer. We gotten used to the humidity and it isn't that much of a big of a deal now.

Come on down and take a look around, I think you folks will be impressed!

f-g

 

[greybeard]

Oklahoma is the only landlocked state I know of that has hurricane force winds at the wink of an eye--especially the western part.
Good people there, but dang it was cold!

 

[SRBeef]

OK sounds like a place to be in the wind generator business...

Construction is going to be very much the same all over right now, from what I see. I would be careful about expecting things to be dramatically different in construction anywhere. Maybe changing the type of work you do might broaden the possibilities? North Dakota is begging for people. Seems like every place you go there are help wanted signs. Fargo has a lot of work and is a bit away from the oilfield.

Good luck.

 

[Limomike]

OK sounds like a place to be in the wind generator business...

Construction is going to be very much the same all over right now, from what I see. I would be careful about expecting things to be dramatically different in construction anywhere. Maybe changing the type of work you do might broaden the possibilities? North Dakota is begging for people. Seems like every place you go there are help wanted signs. Fargo has a lot of work and is a bit away from the oilfield.

Good luck.

Yep, my neighbor actually has a wind generator, and he is getting paid for his electricity that he generates each month.

 

[TexasBred]

I've been ruined with the climate as it is much milder here than it was back in western Kansas. f-g

Had an uncle that moved from Sheridan, Wyoming to Park, Kansas....said he dam near froze to death in Park, Kansas. :lol: