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The thing that a lot of people don't seem to get is that the salaries all depend on the type of job you have. If you work for any type of federal government agency for example (of which there are LOTS of places), you're paid on their scale. Their GS scale adjusts depending on what part of the country you live in, sure, but a quick glance at their salary sheets shows me that a GS13 makes around $20k less in Melbourne, FL, than in San Francisco... $100,000 will take care of you pretty well in Central Florida. $120k in San Francisco, not so much.
We get that. Thing is the difficulty of getting into a government job. Could mean a security clearance, could mean other things. Not everyone can work for the government. And not everyone should, or should feel as though they have to in order to make a decent wage.
The thing that a lot of people don't seem to get is that the salaries all depend on the type of job you have. If you work for any type of federal government agency for example (of which there are LOTS of places), you're paid on their scale. Their GS scale adjusts depending on what part of the country you live in, sure, but a quick glance at their salary sheets shows me that a GS13 makes around $20k less in Melbourne, FL, than in San Francisco... $100,000 will take care of you pretty well in Central Florida. $120k in San Francisco, not so much.
Which is why I don't trust those COL calculators. You can live better on 40K in San Antonio than you can `100K in SF
I'm no expert on most of Virginia, but I used to work in Lebanon, VA for two years. I'm in Bristol, VA several times a week. I'm fairly familiar with up to Roanoke.
Southwest VA isn't expensive at all, but there are virtually no jobs there, and the areas are emptying out. A lot of people think VA is this rich, successful state, but aside from Charlottesville and the "Crescent," which might be 20% of the land area of the state, most of Virginia is like Mississippi.
I'm not as familiar with Florida. I've been to Tampa several times, and have compared to Nashville, and rents and property prices seem much more reasonable in Tampa, and much of Florida overall aside from SE FL, than in Nashville. It did not seem that out of line to me.
I spent about four days in Raleigh over the Fourth. Much nicer city than Tampa, more livable, better traffic and cheaper than Nashville. I've also spent time in Charlotte and it seems to be a toss-up to slightly cheaper than Raleigh.
I live in a small city in northeast TN, which is probably the most desirable city between Knoxville and Asheville. Wages here for most fields are awful. Professional jobs are hard to come by. Still, for the small bit of "upper middle class suburban housing here," we're more expensive than similar neighborhoods in Indianapolis and most of its suburbs. The toniest suburbs of Indy are generally more expensive than anywhere around here, but median household income goes well into the six figures. It's under $40k here. If you're wanting an updated suburban home zoned to city schools here, you're going to be around $200k-$225k as an entry point. With our very low incomes, not many families can afford a $200k house.
I've also lived in Indianapolis and Des Moines. Indianapolis is by far cheaper than similarly sized Southern cities. Wages seem to be higher in the Midwest. Ohio is very cheap. Overall, I'd put Indiana and Ohio as quite a bit less expensive than Tennessee or the Carolinas, much less higher cost Southern states like TX, FL, and VA. AL, MS, and GA outside of Atlanta are probably cheaper, but there is absolutely no economy in most of those areas.
Location: That star on your map in the middle of the East Coast, DMV
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Originally Posted by Serious Conversation
COL is mostly based on proximity to major metros.
I'm no expert on most of Virginia, but I used to work in Lebanon, VA for two years. I'm in Bristol, VA several times a week. I'm fairly familiar with up to Roanoke.
Southwest VA isn't expensive at all, but there are virtually no jobs there, and the areas are emptying out. A lot of people think VA is this rich, successful state, but aside from Charlottesville and the "Crescent," which might be 20% of the land area of the state, most of Virginia is like Mississippi.
20% of the land, but at least about 80% of the population, which is really all that matters.
20% of the land, but at least about 80% of the population, which is really all that matters.
Exactly; more like 70% of the population is in the Urban Crescent, but your point still stands...
Outer Virginia has a lot of Tennessee/WV going on. The climate and geography is far too different from Mississippi, which helps shape the areas culturally, but it is definitely inexpensive to live in Outer VA...
Yep, once you leave Nova, you're in the south. No different than any other southern state.
Every time I go to Fredericksburg or Spotsylvania, I'm always surprised at how southern it is. It honestly is a different world from the places north of it. I've always found Virginia interesting in that sense.
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