advice on current market database consulting rates

hello,
I'm located in houston but also do work in other states when required. What are the typical consulting rates for doing oracle work in the southwest area of the country? The figure I've been quoted was $125 per hour. (at least in the houston area). But I just want to confirm this with a broader spectrum of people.
Also, what are current for "fair" rates for microsoft access/sql consulting. I'm assuming access would be less than sql, but ms-sql would be around the same as oracle? Last summer I got $95 per hour for an Access project...but that was last summer! Has the market changed a lot since then? Basically..should I adjust my rates? My friend in nyc said the consulting firm he works at bills out at $175 per hour...but that is in NYC.

Thanks,

Oskar

ps. Also, on longer projects (400 hours, for example), what are good rates to go down to? For example, if you got a $20k project, would going down to $75 per hour be prudent? Of course, it's best to just stay as high as possible, but today it's hard to get that anymore. Received on Sun Sep 14 2003 - 12:13:00 CDT