L.A. Income levels relative to SF, SD, and NYC? (Los Angeles: fit in, condo)

[Tiger Beer]

I've lived in NYC, SF, and SD.

I met people who told me that they'd prefer living in SD to LA, but that LA paid a lot more. So, they stuck with LA.

I also noticed that wages in SF were signficantly higher than SD. I also noticed that SF wages were quite a bit lower than NYC.

Where does L.A. fit into that? I've never lived in L.A., but always been curious about it. Wondering where that might fit into the spectrum.

[yoyoma02]

I have no statistics to back this up, but I always thought of cost of living cheapest to most expensive like this:

San Diego, LA, San Franisco, and NYC

For the record, I'd rather live in LA out of any of them.

[BarcelonaFan]

Non west LA is livable. Way more I suppose than NYC and San Fran.

[hsw]

Common sense and google/bing are one's friends....

Compare pay of similar, top 20yo vs 30yo vs 40yo software engineers vs bond traders in SV vs BH vs NYC (SD is a joke of a town w/one relevant co.: QCOM; and hardware engineers at an old co. like QCOM tend not to earn much vs software guys at SV cos. w/dynamic share prices; most big wealth is created via equity pay, not cash pay)

And consider COL for such guys in each region

Suspect, today, pay of sw engineer is 100%+ more than that of comparable bond trader

COL in SF is <50% of Manhattan; BH entails far more costly COL than SV/SF (compare cost per acre of land in Woodside vs BH N of Sunset, or psf costs of condo in MillenniumSF vs MontageBH vs 15CPW)

SV is where any smart, hungry kid today goes to make his money; BH is where they inevitably migrate for wkend houses/play/semi-retirement after they make their money after a few yrs of 80+hr workwks post HS/college

[yoyoma02]

Originally Posted by hsw

Common sense and google/bing are one's friends....

Compare pay of similar, top 20yo vs 30yo vs 40yo software engineers vs bond traders in SV vs BH vs NYC (SD is a joke of a town w/one relevant co.: QCOM; and hardware engineers at an old co. like QCOM tend not to earn much vs software guys at SV cos. w/dynamic share prices; most big wealth is created via equity pay, not cash pay)

And consider COL for such guys in each region

Suspect, today, pay of sw engineer is 100%+ more than that of comparable bond trader

COL in SF is <50% of Manhattan; BH entails far more costly COL than SV/SF (compare cost per acre of land in Woodside vs BH N of Sunset, or psf costs of condo in MillenniumSF vs MontageBH vs 15CPW)

SV is where any smart, hungry kid today goes to make his money; BH is where they inevitably migrate for wkend houses/play/semi-retirement after they make their money after a few yrs of 80+hr workwks post HS/college

i didn't follow this post

[mysticaltyger]

Originally Posted by Tiger Beer

I've lived in NYC, SF, and SD.

I met people who told me that they'd prefer living in SD to LA, but that LA paid a lot more. So, they stuck with LA.

I also noticed that wages in SF were signficantly higher than SD. I also noticed that SF wages were quite a bit lower than NYC.

Where does L.A. fit into that? I've never lived in L.A., but always been curious about it. Wondering where that might fit into the spectrum.

Here was an interesting chart of the 49 largest metro areas, the median household income, and then the median household income adjusted for cost of living.

SF, LA, and NYC all rank poorly. L.A. come out the worst, ranking #46 of 49, when wages are adjusted for the cost of living.

http://www.joelkotkin.com/content/00...tches-furthest

[mysticaltyger]

Originally Posted by yoyoma02

i didn't follow this post

You'll learn to ignore HSW.

[pwright1]

Per capita income:

San Francisco - $60,000
Los Angeles - $43,000
San Diego -$45,000
NYC -$53,000

[Tiger Beer]

Originally Posted by pwright1

Per capita income:

San Francisco - $60,000
Los Angeles - $43,000
San Diego -$45,000
NYC -$53,000

What's so interesting is how my personal experience varied so differently from the stats.

I did temp work in SF, SF, NYC.

In SF, I was making about $15-18/hour. Couldn't seem to get much more than that.
In SD, I couldn't find anything above $13/hour.
In NYC, I was steadily pulling in about $25/hour.

[Tiger Beer]

Originally Posted by mysticaltyger

You'll learn to ignore HSW.

Funny as I came to the same conclusion, even though it was the first post I'd seen from that poster.