today I'm going to tell you why West Virginia is on the verge of a turnaround and may be the best
state to buy a home in 2024 and Beyond welcome back to the world according to Briggs and a look
at the Mountain State West Virginia for many years West Virginia has been considered one of the worst
states the U.S has to offer for decades they were one of the most undereducated States the most
impoverished and the most addicted if you don't know the history of opioids in West Virginia it
is sadly one of the most eye-opening things I have ever researched on top of all those hurdles they
have the state's main source of jobs and revenue coal mining has been drying up over the last
couple decades with all of the challenges West Virginia has and they have a lot of them both past
and present West Virginia I think is about to turn it around and that's what we're looking at today
10 reasons why West Virginia is on the verge of a turnaround got it get it good let's take a look
number 10 Community engagement and empowerment now that's a big title that is something West Virginia
is very good at they get the community involved and they have all kinds of programs to get people
back on their feet to get them into school all that good stuff West Virginia communities have
shown resilience and strong sense of community engagement Grassroots initiatives community-led
projects and volunteer efforts can drive positive change and improve the overall well-being of the
residents these people organize and help each other that's what they do they've always been that
way it's in their DNA and a lot of it has to do with who settled West Virginia some of the largest
ancestry groups from back in the day that settled West Virginia were Germans Irish and Scottish if
you listen to some of the old folk music that came out of the mountains of West Virginia it
sounds a lot like Irish and Scottish Folk Music These are three groups of people that are known
for their like Village and their tribe or Clan type mentality they live in small communities
and they help each other so I think that's one of their strong points so any change that's gonna
progress the state the people will be behind at least most of them I'm sure there's some angry
mountain men up there that just want everything to fall apart but for the most part this is how West
Virginia people are they just want things to get better and they're willing to pitch in to do it
number nine Workforce Development so in recent years they've really put a lot of effort into
Workforce Development with all these coal miners and all these jobs drying up they've
had to start focusing on other things and get the populace ready for new jobs in New Industries so
they have programs and initiatives to enhance the skills of the residents this can attract
new businesses and industries as well as help existing businesses Thrive by ensuring like they
have skilled adaptable people working for them as of 2021 West Virginia had over 30 Community
and Technical colleges offering all kinds of programs for the future different Industries
like healthcare manufacturing and energy now I found different numbers but back in 2011 basically
added between 17 and 22 Community or technical colleges I think for a lot of years the state
and the people kind of held on to the thought that coal mining might come back it'll always be there
but not at the levels that it once was where they basically employed half the state eight
number eight natural resources you know this is kind of I've always found this strange that for
many many decades they really didn't focus on their natural resources as much as they
should past coal West Virginia has an abundant amount of Natural Resources forests waterways
and they kind of had a scorched Earth policy prior to let's say the 1990s now they have a
lot more jobs that support outdoor recreation protect the environment eco-friendly Industries
in 2018 the forestry sector supported 26 000 jobs in West Virginia in 2022 it's about 35
000 jobs and this contributes about 3.1 billion to the state's economy as much water as they
have flowing through that state now I don't know I didn't research this one but I would
think with all these good-sized Rivers they would be pulling hydroelectric everywhere
number seven Broadband infrastructure now this I think is the future for West Virginia and there's
a few reasons for this the more access to good quality internet any place will draw in remote
workers will draw in Industries and I think this is one of the things West Virginia realized about
five or seven years ago they need to put effort into getting internet everywhere because think
about it if you're a remote worker you could work anywhere they just got to have internet West
Virginia has one of the lowest costs of living and some of the cheapest real estate in the nation and
I honestly think that is West Virginia's future at least for the next few decades such cheap land
you're gonna pull people in especially the remote workers they're not going to be taking up a job
somebody else from West Virginia could do so you don't have to really have a job for these people
and they put money into the local economy with taxes and just day-to-day living but the state
has been investing and expanding Broadband infrastructure to underserved areas improving
connectivity and fostering digital inclusion as they put it on their website according
to the FCC Federal Communications Commission Broadband availability in West Virginia went
from 69 in 2018 to 93 in 2021. so let's say you're working some digital Nomad job you're making 50
000 a year you could buy a nice home in Morgantown West Virginia for three hundred and
twenty thousand dollars that's five bedrooms three bath three thousand square foot three car garage
and 1.64 Acres that's just one example there's homes just outside of Charleston West Virginia
that are under 300 000 you'll get like two acres and they're well maintained homes I was looking
at other ones that come with like three quarters of an acre decent homes look like they're ready
to move in 150 000 if you don't think you could ever afford a house in the United States you moved
to West Virginia by 150 000 home your mortgage is going to be around eight hundred dollars you
know what eight hundred dollars get you a month in Los Angeles nothing you'll be living in your
car in West Virginia you get a decent house with a little bit of property and beautiful scenery
number six entrepreneurship and small business support now I've read a couple different things
on this this has been a big focus of West Virginia again probably in the last five
to seven years the state has been fostering an environment that is friendly to entrepreneurship
and small businesses as of 2022 the state had over 110 000 small businesses employing nearly
half the state's private work in 2017 they had just a little over 80 000 small businesses
number five tourism potential this is a big one for West Virginia if you like the outdoors if
you're a echo tourist if you liked it just you know you're a tourist that likes to go
hiking West Virginia is the place for you and it's not just hiking mountain biking camping
fishing hunting and even bungee jumping yes they got these amazing bridges that people bungee jump
off of I went bungee jumping on a first date one time I told the girl I didn't want to go bungee
jumping she's all why and I'm like because I might die so you learn things about yourself
when you face death you know what I learned that day I learned I could urinate upside down and it
dates pretty much over when you've wet yourself and cried in a parking lot for 20 minutes my
opinion though I think West Virginia as long as they don't kill anyone bungee jumping has
a great future in tourism they're starting to focus on it they're starting to put more
effort into pulling people in and I think this is gonna help turn the state around in a big way in
2022 the state welcomed over 16 million visitors generating over 4.8 billion visitors spending keep
in mind this is not a big state 4.8 billion dollars is a lot of money for West Virginia
number four Healthcare advancements one of the big things West Virginia is focused on
Health Care not just you know getting better health care for the residents but getting jobs
in the healthcare industry one of the biggest problems West Virginia faced with Healthcare is
accessibility they didn't have enough facilities they didn't have enough doctors nurses whatever
and some people just you know kind of didn't go to the doctor that's a thing for a lot of
Backwoods communities they don't go to the doctor they just kind of wait things out to see what's
going to happen hopefully it goes away and doesn't turn terminal but one of the biggest problems was
actually getting people into the doctor but now with all the internet everywhere in the
state and all this Telehealth you know where you could actually have a video meeting with
your doctor or appointment that's changing the healthcare Landscapes of West Virginia now why
will this help turn the state around well if your State's really lacking in health care a lot of big
Industries really don't want to get involved in your state that goes for just the health of the
worker the work hours lost because employees have to spend a whole day they go into the doctor when
it could have been a two-hour visit in a place that had more hospitals but the Telehealth thing
has really helped West Virginia according to the West Virginia Department of Health and
Human Services Telehealth visits increased by two thousand six hundred percent from 2019 to 2020.
number three education initiatives like I said they were one of the most undereducated States
for a very long time well they're starting to come out of that the state has implemented
various education initiatives aimed at improving the quality of education and
increasing access to educational resources this includes efforts into stem by the way
I mentioned stem before and someone thought it was stem cell research or something like no stem
stands for science technology engineering and Mathematics stem cells are something
totally different but West Virginia's put a big focus on vocational training
programs and they've partnered with different universities and colleges to get people the
skills they need you have a more educated Workforce you're going to get new Industries
number two renewable energy now this is kind of a bad thing to say in places like West Virginia
or Texas the people there have relied on fossil fuels coal oil whatever for so many years the
whole thought of getting energy from the Sun or the wind or the rivers is kind of sacrilegious
to these people they don't want to hear it and they think it's bad they try and tell
you windmills will give you brain tumors yeah and Mining coal will give you black lung disease but
West Virginia definitely has a significant potential for renewable energy development
particularly in the wind and solar power growth of clean energy Industries can bring investment
job creation and more sustainable future for West Virginia it only makes sense wind power is
the big one that will help West Virginia grow but they're also installing solar panels in a
lot of different areas or solar Farms as they call them all right before we get to number one we have
a new channel called The Suite Life for Briggs there's one video up on the channel right now
that explains what the future of that channel is going to be all about there's a link for it
down in the description area love it if you went over there and subscribed alright on to number one
and number one economic diversification West Virginia has been making efforts to diversify
its economy Beyond traditional Industries like coal mining like I said earlier for many decades
coal mining was it in West Virginia either you were a coal miner or you worked in an industry
that supported coal mining I've seen different stats that at 1.75 percent of the state of West
Virginia worked in coal mining or a supportive industry transportation equipment repair things
like that now like I said I'd seen stats that said 75 I've also seen some that said about 50
percent regardless what the actual number is most of this state was all about coal mining
for many many years they've had to change that up all the things I said earlier are
in an effort to attract new Industries such as technology more health care and the tourism I
talked about earlier the main focus of this is to generate greater job opportunities and
economic growth for the populace of West Virginia between 2010 and 2020 when West Virginia saw a 34
percent increase in technology related jobs from 2020 to 2023 they estimate they've seen
a 25 increase I'm just waiting for him to have call centers in West Virginia imagine that you
call a insurance call center or something like that some kind of tech industry call
center set of overalls on and his name's Jebediah actually had to call my mortgage company one time
and talk to a call center person and they had the thickest southern accent you couldn't understand
anything they were saying but they were sweet as can be I could be wrong but at one point I think
they were talking about possums I was like I'm just calling for information about my mortgage
all right everyone so those are the reasons I think West Virginia is about to turn it around
hope you guys enjoyed the video everybody have a great day be nice to each other