Plano named best U.S. city to get rich (Houston: best city, low crime) - Dallas - Texas (TX) - City-Data Forum

tallscot · 07-01-2008, 12:25 PM

This confirms my own experience living in San Francisco, Sacramento and Plano.

Plano named best U.S. city to get rich - Dallas Business Journal:

The best city in which to build vast personal wealth is Plano, according to a recent survey from Salary.com.

Salary.com's "2008 Salary Value Index" surveyed 69 metropolitan areas with more than 250,000 people and ranked the best and worst places to build personal wealth and raise a family.

Rounding out the top five cities where it's easiest to get rich include No. 2 Aurora, Colo.; No. 3 Omaha, Neb.; No. 4 Minneapolis and No. 5 Albuquerque, N.M.

New York's high cost of living placed the city at the bottom of this year's list. Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Honolulu, and San Francisco rounded out the worst five cities.

Elsewhere in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, Arlington ranked at No. 34, Fort Worth was No. 38, and Dallas ranked No. 45. Other Texas cities on the list were No. 13 Austin, No. 24 San Antonio, No. 28 Houston, No. 36 Corpus Christi and No. 54 El Paso.

Salary.com said each city at the top of the list is in a period of growth and change and offers appealing amenities. Many of the nation's largest companies are based in those cities, making them attractive for doing business and raising a family.

The cities at the bottom of the list typically represent the places where living is the most expensive and pay differentials are not proportionately inflated. Although they may have high ratings in terms of diversity of industry and education, cost of living and relative strength of wages offset many of the appealing qualities offered by these cities, Salary.com said.

Plano, is the ninth largest city in Texas and home to the corporate headquarters of companies such as Electronic Data Systems Corp. (NYSE: EDS) and J.C. Penney Co. Inc. (NYSE: JCP)

"The city has a reputation as one of the best places in the country for employers to do business and for families to live and work. Plano has a nationally acclaimed public education system and well-educated, diverse residents," Salary.com said.

In compiling its survey, Salary.com took into account local salaries, the cost of living and unemployment rates relative to the national average. It also considered diversity of industry, the education level of each city's population, proximity to post-secondary institutions, the percentage of residents below the poverty level and median commuting time.

Waltham, Mass.-based Salary.com (Nasdaq: SLRY) provides information about compensation.

Web site: Salary.com Job salaries- Performance reviews- Compensation software

lpepping · 07-01-2008, 12:36 PM

Best city to get rich? HAHA. What list will they think of next?

tallscot · 07-01-2008, 12:37 PM

Did you read it?

momof2dfw · 07-01-2008, 12:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tallscot

The cities at the bottom of the list typically represent the places where living is the most expensive and pay differentials are not proportionately inflated. Although they may have high ratings in terms of diversity of industry and education, cost of living and relative strength of wages offset many of the appealing qualities offered by these cities, Salary.com said.

With time the top places to do business and reside and raise a family WILL become higher on the totem pole in terms of the sheer number of people that are "highly educated" and wages will rise as well. Much more so than those near the bottom overall in THIS survey/ranking.

lpepping · 07-01-2008, 12:42 PM

Yes. I found it funny that it is based on cities. It should be based on regions IMO. Seems they tried too hard with this one.

tallscot · 07-01-2008, 01:10 PM

Yes. I found it funny that it is based on cities

I don't really understand why "region" would be better. The DFW Metropolitan Area is huge. The living experience in Plano is vastly different than Oak Cliff. That's the point of the list, to help people decide where to relocate to.

I found it interesting that this survey contradicts a lot of people's perception of Plano, especially the fact that average commute time was included. Most people think you have to live close to downtown to have a low average commute. Plano has attracted a lot of large corporate campuses that hire a lot of people, thus their commute is short. My wife doesn't even get on the freeway to go to work.

This survey confirms my political views too. I lived under liberal policies for years and they are a disaster. In very conservative Plano, we have low poverty, low unemployment, low crime, low cost of living, high discretionary income, high quality schools...but not all White ethnicity! I also noticed that the other four cities in the top five are not liberal bastions either.

Plano has a lot of well-educated, highly paid jobs because it has created them by attracting businesses through economic incentive, which is evil in the eyes of liberal politicians.

Plano's cost of living is low because of the pro-building policies versus the "anti-sprawl" policies of the left. In Sacramento, there are tens of thousands of dollars in the price of a home just for all the various fees the city/county/state impose on developers, including habitat conservation fees to buy acreage for various environmental groups, that get passed onto the consumer.

In short, it is the city's policies that dictate most of these things.

lpepping · 07-01-2008, 01:20 PM

I say that because I have lived in the DFW area for a long time. I have lived in Northwest Dallas, Carrollton, Far North Dallas/Plano, North Dallas and East Dallas. The article told me that if I live in Plano I would have a greater chance of becoming rich. LOL. Maybe I read it wrong. Seems quite hilarious to me. In my experience, all of the places in the DFW area that I have lived have not affected my ability to become rich. All of these places have relatively cheap COL and are accessible to highly paid jobs. That is why I would say regions or metro areas would be a better way to construct the rankings.