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Wow Birmingham is more affluent than : Buffalo , Jacksonville , Louisville , New Orleans , Miami , Oklahoma City , Memphis,Orlando ,San Antonio , Tampa, and Las Vegas.Now some of them shocked me.
The bolded cities are shockers.
Also how high Baltimore is rated. I surmise it is mostly its proximity to D.C. that pushes it up so high, but even then I'm not sure exactly why.
False. Virtually everything is more expensive in New York City than a small town USA. Everything doesn't scale to the same degree as real estate which may be 10x as expensive... but rents are more expensive, so that means fast food places have higher fixed costs and tend to have higher prices. The same Bud Light at a bar in Mississippi might run you $2 but at a bar in Manhattan would be 6 or 7 dollars. Gas tends to be more expensive in areas where cost of living is higher. Take a look at gas prices in New York City, Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles and compare it to the south.
FYI, gas price 1 mile away from Manhattan is cheaper than in Kentucky and majority of other states... and if you think Walmart or Amazon.com has a "special" internet page for NYC where prices are intentionally set higher than in the rest of the US I have got a bridge in Brooklyn to sell for ya.
A couple who both make middle class wages doing jobs like a Barber and an Administrative Assistant, will make less money in a regular town like Little Rock but their standard of living will be less in an affluent area because their wages will still be far less than the additional cost of living.
Flawed because the cost of living is so high in those cities that the middle class has a lower standard of living than in less wealthy areas. $100K in Washington DC is like making $50K in Little Rock. So if you make $60K in Little Rock you are more affluent.
Yeahhhh, no....it really boils down to where people have more disposable income which isn't always conducive to overall cost of living.
But housing isn't the only factor of cost of living. I'd venture to say $45,000 in San Jose probably won't go further than $40,000 in Durham, NC, or Huntsville, AL, even after housing costs have been taken into account.
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Food, utilities, transportation, and healthcare are all appreciably more expensive in San Jose than Huntsville. Yes, housing is the biggest difference... but as I posted earlier, that trickles down to other things.
The only people who say this nonsense "50k in Bumpisville, MS is 500k in NYC" are people who live in Bumpisville, MS. Both places use the same currency, and everything but real estate costs basically the same. It's not like you "lose money" if you move from Bumpisville, MS to NYC, you will just adjust to living in your new city, just like the locals.
An apple, or mortgage points, or a TV, or house cleaning, or college tuition, or whatever, costs the same within national boundaries, more or less. The only real difference is real estate, and that is tied to appreciation anyways, so if you're paying more, the assumption is that you real estate is also increasing in value more, so it works out. I would rather have a 1 million home appreciating in value and have heavy mortgage costs than a 200k home with no gain in value, and light mortgage costs.
But most people spend a lot of their income on rent/mortgage so yeah(And you're not investing when you're renting), then you have to account for taxes which are generally higher in cities like NYC, SF, Seattle, etc then in Little Rock.
People are delusional to believe 100k is the same in NYC as it is in Little Rock. That's laughable and you're foolish for thinking this. If that's the case, why don't everyone just pack up and move to these high cost metros?
A good number of people in the affluent places on the list spend up to 50% of their take home income on their mortgage or rent, so if housing is twice as expensive in Washington DC than a regular town like Little Rock, even if your wages are slightly higher in DC, you are not feeling that affluent!
But housing isn't the only factor of cost of living. I'd venture to say $45,000 in San Jose probably won't go further than $40,000 in Durham, NC, or Huntsville, AL, even after housing costs have been taken into account.
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Food, utilities, transportation, and healthcare are all appreciably more expensive in San Jose than Huntsville. Yes, housing is the biggest difference... but as I posted earlier, that trickles down to other things.
Housing is the number one expense by far and after that's handled in the grand scheme of things 15%-20% differences between Huntsville and San Jose are pretty easily overlooked. One only has to look at the number of thriving mid-scale restaurants, shops and coffee houses in "expensive" cities like NYC, DC and SF to realize that it's truly not that expensive to live there for the "average working Joe".
The only people who say this nonsense "50k in Bumpisville, MS is 500k in NYC" are people who live in Bumpisville, MS. Both places use the same currency, and everything but real estate costs basically the same. It's not like you "lose money" if you move from Bumpisville, MS to NYC, you will just adjust to living in your new city, just like the locals.
An apple, or mortgage points, or a TV, or house cleaning, or college tuition, or whatever, costs the same within national boundaries, more or less. The only real difference is real estate, and that is tied to appreciation anyways, so if you're paying more, the assumption is that you real estate is also increasing in value more, so it works out. I would rather have a 1 million home appreciating in value and have heavy mortgage costs than a 200k home with no gain in value, and light mortgage costs.
Not true at all. I live in NYC, and basic things like food and toilet paper cost nearly 100% more than they did in Bumpisville, MS. Services like house cleaning and child care cost 200% more. It's not just real estate, although that in particular does cost more like 700% more.
I've found a comfortable middle-upper-middle class (to live without any financial stress) salary is $55,000 in Bumpisville, $80,000 in a Santa Fe, and $115,000 in a NYC.
And even then, making twice as much in NYC, you'll be living in a one bedroom condo without being able to afford children or child care whereas the Bumpisville person making half as much will have five bedrooms and as much cheap childcare as he/she could ever want.
The real estate may (or may not) appreciate more in NYC, but you're also paying condo fees the whole while that will be $600 to $1500 a month. There are no condo fees in Bumpisville or Santa Fe, since you'll own an entire free-standing house. Or if you do have condo fees (in a more upscale town like Santa Fe) they will be $250 instead of $800 monthly for the same sized condo.
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