Forbes' America's Best Bargain Cities

[lemonfresh]

If you adjusted salary with C.O.L for every city in this country, SA would be in the upper middle section of a list as opposed to the near bottom if you just compared salaries. You can't ignore cost of living when you're discussing salaries.

[lemonfresh]

Originally Posted by eger

How is cost of living any cheaper here other than real estate?

Gas and food. However, don't dismiss real estate as if it's a small inventory item.

[Backliteyes]

Originally Posted by eger

How is cost of living any cheaper here other than real estate?

Cost of living IMHO is what you make of it. Some people live like money is not an issue or buy more than they need, and some choose to penny pinch.

Cost of living refers to what it costs to buy comparable things in different paces. For example, in Place A it might cost $900 a month for a 1-bedroom apartment. In Place B, a similar apartment (same square footage, similar quality and safety of neighborhood, etc.) might cost $600 a month. The same concept applies to anything else you can buy in different places (food, services, entertainment, etc.).

Cost of living matters more when you're at the bottom end of the income scale. If you can only command minimum wage, for example, would you rather live where the cheapest studio apartment you can find costs $400 a month, or where it costs $750 a month?

Once you get further up the income scale what you spend on living expenses becomes more of a lifestyle choice, but that's something totally different than what is meant by the cost of living in an area.

[eger]

Originally Posted by Backliteyes

Cost of living refers to what it costs to buy comparable things in different paces. For example, in Place A it might cost $900 a month for a 1-bedroom apartment. In Place B, a similar apartment (same square footage, similar quality and safety of neighborhood, etc.) might cost $600 a month. The same concept applies to anything else you can buy in different places.

Cost of living matters more when you're at the bottom end of the income scale. If you can only command minimum wage, for example, would you rather live where the cheapest studio apartment you can find costs $400 a month, or where it costs $750 a month?

Once you get further up the income scale what you spend on living expenses becomes more of a lifestyle choice, but that's something totally different than what is meant by the cost of living in an area.

Thx

[Backliteyes]

Originally Posted by lemonfresh

Gas and food. However, don't dismiss real estate as if it's a small inventory item.

This reminded me of a really good example of cost of living differences. I used to live in Arizona and I find electricity here to be significantly cheaper. The bills I'm comparing are both for one-bedroom apartments of roughly the same size, both air conditioned. I definitely use more electricity here (not sure how much more, but I'm absolutely certain it can't be less or even the same), but my electricity bill is at least a third less per month of what it was in Arizona, sometimes the difference is even larger.

I'm not sure why that's the case, but there it is.

[Dopo]

Originally Posted by amybeccaz

I don't believe it.... Kansas City is MUCH cheaper than San Antonio.

I have to disagree,
In 2005 I rented a 1000sqft apartment in Overland Park (KC nice area) for $850 and it seemed to be a good deal.
3 years later, in 2008, I rented a 1000sqft apartment in North San Antonio, close to 281 and Thousand Oaks for $750 a month.

Besides, KC should be cheaper since is in the middle of the plains and there's absolutely nothing to do outside of KC except for the few lakes that are close the city.