I know rents are insane,and have gone up about 500% since the boom started (from maybe $500/month to $2500 for a 2 bedroom). What about all other costs of living?
Gasoline, electricity, goods at walmart, fast food, grocery items, healthcare, etc.
Would the oil boom towns where low skill labor is offering $15/hr be a good test as to what would happen if the minimum wage were hiked that high? My understanding is low wage labor is a fairly small part of the cost of running many businesses, and the other costs (except maybe for real estate) should be the same. I say ‘maybe’ because I would assume many of those businesses were established before the oil boom started and got the real estate cheap.
Back to the cost of rent. It isn’t so much that the lodging is so expensive, it is that there just aren’t enough places to stay available. That is what drives the price up. If you want the comfort of an apartment or a nice house to rent, you are going to pay a steep price.
I have a couple friends who are working there and they are crammed into a travel trailer, work very hard for 3 weeks, then fly back to Oregon for R & R.
If you are thinking of going there to work, buying a travel/camper trailer will cost you less than a few months rent will. Of course you will need to pay to park it somewhere with water and electric facilities.
If you roll into town looking for a job, you can get one, if you think you are going to find a cheap apartment you will not.
Oh, and these guys are not working for $15 an hour, they guy pumping your gas might be and he is just waiting for a better offer to open up. The guys I know are working as skilled equipment operators.
What I know about oil boom cities: It is almost impossible to find a place to rent because the oil companies rent up the apartments so they can house their semi-transient workers. Apartment complexes have long waiting lists. Rents go up fast $$$-wise. Some oil workers live in their cars until a place becomes available. I am using Midland, TX as an example. Even the motel rates are sky high.
It would not surprise me if in ND, Walmart and Target raised their prices so a winter coat costs $500! Oil towns are a boom for landlords.
I was referring to how cold it is in a ND winter and that if you live there you are a ‘captive’ market.
It was meant as a sarcastic joke. :smack: and I am glad I was wrong although I already knew that.
You can’t raise the price of winter coats etc, because people will just online order them or whatever. The items with higher prices are items where that isn’t possible - primarily rent, but also services like haircuts, restaurant meals, and the like due to higher labour costs. The Walmart in Williston has to compete with Amazon and the like. The Macdonald’s in Williston doesn’t.
Have a friend of the family living up there and during the initial rush, the local Walmart quit trying to stock the shelves. They just left everything out on pallets and replenished as necessary. I remember asking him if the prices were any worse, and he really didn’t think so. What was tough was waiting in huge lines at the gas stations, and fending off offers on his 5th wheel he was living in at the time.
I read an article today, having trouble finding it online. They claim that gasoline is a little cheaper (maybe 20 cents a gallon) which makes some sense I guess. Walmart and fast food prices are pretty much the same.
However health care is a little more expensive, in part because you have to travel for it. Health care might be a little more, but these are small towns so there is also the factthat quality won’t be that good.
So it is seeming like rent is the only big cost factor that varies. I’d assume utilities are the same.
My background is in chemistry, quality control and inventory management, I’m looking into jobs in the region but don’t know what use they would have for me. I figure if entry level jobs at walmart and taco bell are offering $15-20/hr, I ‘should’ be able to find something for a college educated person with a good work record in QC and science for $30+/hr. But I am not seeing it right now. The one job I was (kindof) offered paid about what a job at walmart offers, and less than I’m making in Indiana where rent is 5x cheaper. I think I’m too old or have too many musculoskeletal problems to work as a roustabout.
I was up there working (Williston) 2010 and I went up a few months ago to visit a friend and see if I wanted to work up there again.
No effing way.
First off, there are almost no apartments to be had in Williston. If you find one, you’d better not piss off your landlord, as Williams County and the state of North Dakota have some the most lax tenant’s rights laws in the country. Your landlord will street you for looking at him funny as there are two dozen more like you with cash waiting to move in that day.
Second: Think that you’ll live in a camper, an RV or your vehicle? Wrong again! Williams County passed an ordinance forbidding you living in a car ( you can be cited and arrested) and your vehicle will be impounded. You can no longer park in Wally World’s lots (they strictly enforce this) and you’ll get a ticket if you live in an RV outside of a trailer park and your trailer might get impounded.
There are RV lots and man camps. The RV lots run $800-1000 a month and many of them having waiting lists. The man camps have some vacancies. Biutthey are expensive (not sure how much) and they’ll kick you out as well if you piss them off
Third thing: Wanna a buy house? Got $200k for what is a essentially a shack? Better have cash and be ready to close.
Fourth: Ever been to a Wal*Mart that ran out of toilet paper? I have. And paper towels. And Kleenex. And napkins…you get the picture. It got so bad on some job sites that they were threatening to can people for stealing toilet paper.
I stayed with my friend when I was working up there (I parked my rV in his barn) and again when I went back a few months ago. If anything, the place has gotten WORSE since 2010.
If you go…take some cash and learn patience.
You’ll need plenty of both.
