2005 data: Lincoln #97 out 360 US cities in per capita income (best city, hotels)

[ehenningsen]

http://bea.gov/bea/newsrel/MPINewsRelease.htm

along with a very low cost of living..

[kosnebbear]

Looking at the numbers here it looks to be about a tie. But I have to agree with you that the cost of living is much less than it is in Fort Collins and this is according to what my brother-in-law who lives in Fort Collins has said. But he loves living there, but he also is an attorney which means that the difference in the cost of living is not that important to him. Lincoln is in 97th and Fort Collins is in 80th place.

[Rumblebelly]

I'll go on a MattDen rant about Fort Collins. I'm moving and I know I can get away with it

I can't believe how anyone would want to move to an area where water is such a shortage. Lawns are dead everywhere because people can't either afford to water or they feel bad watering. The area is a desert, it rarely rains. Farmers around the area are closing up shop and selling land to developers, putting up cookie cutter neighborhoods with cheaply built homes.

North College is a blight. Vacant businesses everywhere, some with boarded up windows. Old seedy hotels, trailer parks, decay. Homeless drunk people walking up and down the street. I once got attacked by a drunk homeless guy because I wouldn't give him anything.

Even downtown has vacant buildings. Businesses can't afford to stay in business because property is so expensive. All foot traffic is getting sucked to the mega malls outside the city, killing our downtown.

People are living paycheck to paycheck paying for their overpriced homes. People with Masters and PhDs are working in gas stations and as wait staff because they can't find work. Everyone wants to live here and yet there aren't enough jobs. The employers know this and pay low, even with the high cost of living out here.

This winter our street did not get plowed at all. Big deal, right? Well, that's also a fact for most of the other residential streets in town after that 2 foot snowfall we had in Dec. Also potholes are everywhere, the city won't fix em. Wanna know why? Because the city doesn't have the cash to plow it's streets or fix holes. We do have low taxes though, wonder if that's why nothing gets done on our streets.

This city has some major problems and yet everyone still wants to move here. I have no idea why it was named the best city in the US this year.

[Rumblebelly]

The above post was more in jest than anything but it's all true. However, I still think Fort Collins is a great city.

[ehenningsen]

LOL, nice!!!

[MattDen]

According to that the per-capita income is 33,612 (Bureau of Economic Analysis) Census had it much lower but the Bureau of Economic analysis numbers.

Per-capita income: 33,612 Lincoln
Per-capita income: 36,048 Metropolitan portion of United States
Lincoln is 7% below the national average for the metropolitan portion of the United States. Metropolitan areas being above 100,000 people.

Lincoln is 97th

[Rumblebelly]

Cost of living is pretty low in Lincoln

[ehenningsen]

You are correct mattden, lincoln people make 5% less than the average metro and makes more money per capita than 3/4 of all the metros in the us
and people in lincoln pay 12% lower than the average metro for cost of living, and the metro's that are ahead of Lincoln are generally many times larger, but also have a much higher cost of living...

Housing costs are 30% lower, so that more than makes up for it, the buying power here in nebraska is very high...

[MattDen]

Wages for 326 largest counties
2nd quarter 2006
Bureau of Labor statistics

-United States average weekly wage: 784
-Lancaster County, Nebraska weekly wagr: 636
19% below the national average on wages for Lancaster County (Lincoln) Nebraska

The per-capita income is 7% below the average for metropolitan areas, however the average weekly wage is 19% lower then the national average.

[ehenningsen]

I was searching for anything that would support your data and nothing came up except for the data I came up with...

Please provide a link...