While some other states with high unemployment, including Michigan, have seen their labor forces shrink, Oregon’s labor force has grown. Economists say some of the growth appears to be driven by people who moved here with money they made in California, whether from real estate or stock market investments, and expected to get by but now must look for work.
“It’s just so depressing to hear them because they thought they had life handled and they don’t,” said Bobbie Faust, an employment counselor who works for the state in Bend.
The Telfords are among those facing trouble. They had presumed they would be able to sell their house in Fresno for more than $300,000 to help pay the mortgage on the new house they bought near the Deschutes River in Bend for $475,000. But the Fresno house has yet to sell, and Mrs. Telford, an accountant, has lost a series of jobs at small firms here that she said had downsized. The couple’s only income now comes from her unemployment checks and her husband’s salary as a high school teacher.
“The cash flow is negative,” Mrs. Telford said. “This will be the first time we’ve had to go into savings.”
We were in Bend (Sun River) over the Memorial Day weekend. We were there because we got a good deal on a condo–because even rentals are being affected.
We saw everything the article described. But one thing surprised me: in the Old Mill District of Bend are new restaurants, clothing stores, sportsgoods shops, and such. To be sure, we saw them on the first holiday of the tourist season. But they looked healthy. And the one restaurant we had drinks at–Greg’s Grill–boasted of doing well. So there is some health there.
And the Episcopal Church in town preaches God’s love to everyone. But it’s the Missouri Synod Lutheran Church that is REALLY growing!
sent this to my friend in Bend, and he is actually happy about things there in some ways, it is “preserving the small town attributes.”