For the complainers.......DFW COL v. pay rates near the top among large metros - and yes the data is fresh. (apartments, employment)

[kyam11]

Originally Posted by BongoBungo

Not trying to sound sexist or anything but most married women in DFW are either stay at home moms for a significant portion of their working years or make far less income than their husbands (men are more likely to hold STEM backgrounds or work high skilled blue collar labor, both of which are the most common paths to high income levels). My wife makes less than $45k despite 15 years of experience and a master's degree (liberal arts). She made over $80k in NYC and that was over 5 years ago. So your hypothetical situation is only accurate of the top 10-20% of households. But being a software developer myself the income stats you posted for software developers around here are very accurate. Just not the part about the typical DFW wife making $80k/yr.

Good point and I did not mean to make it seem like $80K. I meant being near the top of your professions wage scale as a database developer should be well over $120K ($130,140,150, more). Significant other makes $50K and you approach $200K. Point being and I think you can agree that if you are $160K combined or more you can easily prosper in this DFW area.

The poster did write "very few people make what he/she made" which leads me to believe top 3% or so pay wise. That would easily be $200K combined income.

[NoClueWho]

Originally Posted by kyam11

All this says is you picked the wrong profession, not that DFW is too expensive.

Wow.

DOUBLE wow that you would tell someone who makes 6 figures that, which pretty much proves the point about DFW becoming/now being too expensive for many people.

[Hacker1234]

Yeah its getting way too expensive for what you get in the area.

[NoClueWho]

Originally Posted by Hacker1234

Yeah its getting way too expensive for what you get in the area.

The California influx has a whole lot to do with the cost of living shooting up so fast in DFW. But as fast as DFW's COL keeps rising, at some point, you have to wonder when the Californians who came to DFW or are thinking about coming here solely for a lower COL that would help improve their QOL will say, "Hey, wait a minute! If I'm going to pay prices that are closer to California's prices than to traditional Texas prices with none of California's great weather, mountains, beaches, better amenities, etc....then why don't I just go back to/stay in California?!?"

[BongoBungo]

Originally Posted by kyam11

Good point and I did not mean to make it seem like $80K. I meant being near the top of your professions wage scale as a database developer should be well over $120K ($130,140,150, more). Significant other makes $50K and you approach $200K. Point being and I think you can agree that if you are $160K combined or more you can easily prosper in this DFW area.

The poster did write "very few people make what he/she made" which leads me to believe top 3% or so pay wise. That would easily be $200K combined income.

That makes sense. And to be fair as far as professionals in tech, I think most competent and driven people in the field do reach well into the six figures once they get into their late 30s and 40s. Senior level developers in the area top out in the early $90k-$130k range, but typically after that they may go into management or contracting which allows for even higher income levels. I do contracting work myself and have made close to $200k in some years.

[Hacker1234]

Thats me, I came from CA 12 years ago. I don't see the point of TX anymore so we went back.

[kyam11]

Originally Posted by Mentallect

Wow.

DOUBLE wow that you would tell someone who makes 6 figures that, which pretty much proves the point about DFW becoming/now being too expensive for many people.

I never knew he made 6 figures. What was said is that

a) Very few people make what he makes in his profession
b) He can't afford to live in DFW anymore Or at least it is a struggle.

Using basic logic that would lead one to believe that he is an a profession where the top pay is about $40,000 which would mean he chose the wrong profession.

Why would I think that? Because it has already been shown that you can easily afford a nice area with 2 incomes where you make $100K in DFW combined. That leads me to believe that his two incomes are about $60K.

In other words something doesn't add up. Since he has since stated that he is a database developer and is one of the highest paid then he has to make over $100K. Saying you can't prosper in DFW when making $150K with 2 incomes is ludicrous

[kyam11]

Originally Posted by Mentallect

The California influx has a whole lot to do with the cost of living shooting up so fast in DFW. But as fast as DFW's COL keeps rising, at some point, you have to wonder when the Californians who came to DFW or are thinking about coming here solely for a lower COL that would help improve their QOL will say, "Hey, wait a minute! If I'm going to pay prices that are closer to California's prices than to traditional Texas prices with none of California's great weather, mountains, beaches, better amenities, etc....then why don't I just go back to/stay in California?!?"

Where in CA? It has been debunked that we are even halfway to CA prices when looking at similar priced homes in similar type cities. Used to be 1/3 at most and now it is about 1/2 at most.

[Hacker1234]

The sad thing, is that bringing in 150k today in DFW is like earning 100k a couple years ago. And its only getting worse.

[Hacker1234]

Originally Posted by kyam11

Where in CA? It has been debunked that we are even halfway to CA prices when looking at similar priced homes in similar type cities. Used to be 1/3 at most and now it is about 1/2 at most.

Places like SD, LA, SJ, SF and SAC, if you are a high income earner you can do just fine. We settled for Seattle WA, yeah its not cheap but its worth the money.