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Old 08-23-2016, 07:22 AM
 
Location: Austin, TX
1,825 posts, read 2,828,191 times
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Austin wages are the highest, when adjusted for cost of living | www.mystatesman.com

I've suspected this for a long time, though there are definitely exceptions. Glad we didn't move to the Bay area...
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Old 08-23-2016, 07:58 AM
 
Location: home
1,235 posts, read 1,531,670 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Aquitaine View Post
Austin wages are the highest, when adjusted for cost of living | www.mystatesman.com

I've suspected this for a long time, though there are definitely exceptions. Glad we didn't move to the Bay area...


Housing here is still dirt cheap. I think long-time Austinites have been spoiled. I know that lower-middle class people complain about being priced out, but they at least have options (Buda, Leander, PF, etc.). In the Bay area, you're completely SOL.
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Old 08-27-2016, 11:01 PM
 
Location: Honolulu
430 posts, read 639,814 times
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Yes COL is low if you include the suburbs in house prices. A $500k house with 3% property tax isn't affordable to anyone but the literal 1%
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Old 08-27-2016, 11:13 PM
 
Location: Austin/Hawaii
157 posts, read 266,844 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Aquitaine View Post
I've suspected this for a long time, though there are definitely exceptions. Glad we didn't move to the Bay area...
Same here. Feeling truly blessed that we stayed and bought our home here 10 years ago - would be much harder trying to get in now.
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Old 08-28-2016, 07:43 AM
 
Location: Austin, TX
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Quote:
Originally Posted by thejackalope View Post
Yes COL is low if you include the suburbs in house prices. A $500k house with 3% property tax isn't affordable to anyone but the literal 1%
Well, no.

Your tax bill would be about $11,500 a year at 2.3% (which is more typical than 3% - that's more MUD territory, which is the outer burbs). That's still a lot of tacos, but not compared to the state tax burden in NY or CA.

$500k also still buys you a lot of house in Austin unless you want top-end neighborhoods. SF and NYC both have top-end neighborhoods too, and you can't get in those for $500k. Most of the outrage about housing costs in Austin is over the middle class neighborhood of $200k, which used to go pretty far and now does not. Neither SF nor NYC have had anything to offer for $200k in many years.

COL includes housing and a number of other factors. It is true that not all of them matter to all people. If you don't drive, for instance, the fact that CA dings you a lot more on registration fees (and gas prices) won't hit you as hard.
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Old 08-28-2016, 10:29 AM
 
199 posts, read 176,546 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Aquitaine View Post
Austin wages are the highest, when adjusted for cost of living | www.mystatesman.com

I've suspected this for a long time, though there are definitely exceptions. Glad we didn't move to the Bay area...
IF they include the suburbs...
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Old 08-28-2016, 03:57 PM
 
Location: Austin, TX
1,825 posts, read 2,828,191 times
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Quote:
IF they include the suburbs...
Not at all.

Do a dollar-for-dollar comparison of the three or four most central zip codes in SF versus Austin. It's still not even close.
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Old 08-28-2016, 07:40 PM
 
Location: Austin, TX
12,059 posts, read 13,890,870 times
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I don't disagree with this, but I would like to see the change from 5 years ago. I suspect the delta between us and SF is narrowing and only a matter of time before our lower COL doesn't cover the lower salaries. A graph on this would be most useful I think, showing relative salary over time.
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Old 08-29-2016, 07:03 AM
 
Location: Austin, TX
1,825 posts, read 2,828,191 times
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Quote:
I suspect the delta between us and SF is narrowing and only a matter of time before our lower COL doesn't cover the lower salaries. A graph on this would be most useful I think, showing relative salary over time.
I suspect you're right about the delta narrowing, though the COL in SF and NY didn't stay flat over those five years even if they didn't grow as much as Austin.
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Old 08-29-2016, 07:36 AM
 
2,602 posts, read 2,980,690 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by cBach View Post
I don't disagree with this, but I would like to see the change from 5 years ago. I suspect the delta between us and SF is narrowing and only a matter of time before our lower COL doesn't cover the lower salaries. A graph on this would be most useful I think, showing relative salary over time.
Last 5 years we actually come out ahead. Remember California/SF saw a dip from the recession(so about 2011 you'd catch them near the bottom of the dip). Austin didn't really see much of one at all.


Zillow, for what it's worth, but they show an almost doubling of property values in SF from 2011 to 2016.

San Francisco CA Home Prices & Home Values | Zillow


They have austin with a ~50% increase in that time.

Austin TX Home Prices & Home Values | Zillow
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