What U.S. city has the strongest and healthiest middle class?

[just_sayin']

Originally Posted by foadi

i factored COL into my post, why do you think i used a higher income threshold for DC? some of you seriously need to learn to read.

You should read the rest of our posts and not just the quoted part...

60k in Pittsburgh still goes much further than 75k in DC.

[CountryFisher]

Any city that people on this forum hate (some place that according to the City-Data Forum consensus isn't dense, walk-able, diverse, liberal, for "young professionals" or any place that doesn't charges an outrageous amount to live like sardines in a high rise.)

[foadi]

Originally Posted by I'minformed2

You should read the rest of our posts and not just the quoted part...

60k in Pittsburgh still goes much further than 75k in DC.

why should i read the rest of those posts when none of them read mine?

let's look at my post.

Originally Posted by foadi

not in the slightest.

pittsburgh: 980,405 households

313,688 of those households make under $30,000/year. that's 32%

dc metro: 2,071,390 households

only 559,816 households make under $50,000/year (27%) and 302,920 households make under $30,000/year (14.6%).

30k for pittsburgh vs 50k for DC comparison. now lets look at a COL comparison website



30k salary in pittsburgh is comparable to a 48k salary in DC. uh oh, guess i did make room for COL differences in that comparison, and the three of you completely ignored it. as far as non-housing expenses go, DC is only around 5-10% more expensive according to that comparison.

that said, i object to the methodology these comparison sites you, because it only takes into account land values, not average costs per household. land might be 352% more expensive in DC, but average housing costs certainly are not. lets look at median mortgage expenses



$1255 vs $2423. oops, thats not 352% more expensive that's not even 100% more expensive.

or lets look at median rents



$672 vs $1353

less than $1000/month difference

now a quick glance at craigslist for comparison of avg rent for 3 br townhome





cheaper housing in pitt? of course. but not enough to give it a stronger middle class than DC, sorry.

[nature's message]

Washington
Houston
San Francisco
Dallas

In that order.