Move to a Cheap Location

Move Your Home in a Recession

Recessions do not hit equally everywhere. High-cost urban areas with a concentration of major corporate employers tend to be hit the worst. The costs of home ownership, transportation, food, and entertainment in urban areas tend to remain high in recessions, even though employment and demand at the consumer level drops. Moving from a high-cost-low-growth area to a low-cost-high-growth area can significantly help you and your family weather a recession.

Recessions tend to hit with lesser force in growing areas with ample open land, younger populations, and more basic consumer-oriented businesses driving the local economy. Regulations on new development are less stringent, making it faster and cheaper for developers to build new homes, hospitals, restaurants, commercial buildings, and shopping centers.

Tax incentives are often provided by local governments to promote economic growth, and taxes tend to be lower as there is less existing infrastructure and government bureaucracy to support. Young growing families build the economy from the ground up, with small businesses and middle-class jobs. This local job growth offsets the recession affecting urban areas. The idea is to find one of these areas fairly close to a major population center, rather than the "boondocks" where there are no economic drivers and very little long term opportunity.

Best Places to Move in a Recession

When considering a move to a high-growth area, the three major items to consider are:

Home price (buy or rent) as a percentage of income in your profession (the lower the better)

Population mix favoring young over old (the higher the better)

Local employment growth

Distance to a major population center (just outside the farthest reasonable weekday 1-way commute is best - 2 hours is far enough as it's close enough to drive for business or pleasure and long term expansion will eventually drive property values and local economy growth)

Best Locations for Jobs in a Recession

Many smaller towns, cheaper suburbs, and college towns have good basic job opportunities.

As far as job opportunities in cheaper locations, these are typically bread-and-butter sales, services, insurance, restaurant, animal care, automotive, and manufacturing jobs.

Of course, the area must have good job opportunities during a recession. These job opportunities might be in your profession. However, if your industry is declining or your profession is being outsourced, it may be better to look for areas where basic job growth is strong and costs are low.

To have a nice life you don't have to be in the highest paying industry or one that requires a college degree or PhD -- sometimes you just need the cost of living to be lower relative to local income. So when you're looking for locations with the best job opportunities to move to, really concentrate upon basic employment and job growth where everybody in the community can make a resonable living and there are opportunities for parents and young people.

If you are willing to move away from an urban environment to the outer reaches of the 'burbs, you may find economic conditions more suitable for finding a job, raising a family, buying a home and commuting to work locally.