Houston vs. San Diego (Highland: sales, university, income)

[TVC15]

Texas has average lower salaries for several reasons when compared to CA...but the two main reasons are:

• All around lower COL
• No Personal State Income Tax only Federal Taxes.

[NYSD1995]

Houston is a big city and a business city. People go there to make money. It has low COL and a diverse global economy. San Diego is a beautiful, expensive, regional city where people move to enjoy life.

nurse, teacher, police & fire, construction, you will make more in CA generally, but it won't offset the higher cost of living. If you are a white collar professional, you can make more in SF, maybe LA, probably less in SD. Compared to SD, there are exponentially more jobs in Houston or Dallas.

If you're already established in San Diego, it's going to be pretty tough to trade off San Diego for Houston unless you had to.

[ShelbyGirl1]

It's like comparing apples to a dinosaur . Spent a total of 14 years there because of various transfers. Once my DH retired...we were gone..never to step foot in the State again.

[Pedro2000]

Originally Posted by sdurbanite

Don't forget that the "Sunshine Tax" usually applies when comparing SD to other high COL cities like The Bay area SF, Seattle, Boston and NYC. Average salaries here aren't lower than low cost cities like Atlanta, Phoenix, Tampa, Charlotte, St. Louis or Cleveland.

People should pay attention to how taxes work and not just look at some COL website.
Look at the Dwight Howard NBA situation. The guy took something like $30 Million less to go to Houston instead of staying in Los Angeles. And if you do the math after all the taxes, the reality is because he'll be in Texas, he'll be making about the same or more money. Taxes play a huge role.

I think most people just choose to ignore the realities of things. Even most big corporations aren't exactly incorporated or earn most of their revenue in California. Many are incorporated in Delaware and funnel their money to Ireland or some other eastern european country. It does seem most people ignore taxes and just stare at some website and assume COL here is better than COL there. And they ignore the fact that if you take $80K in Houston over $80K in San Diego, you're going to be far better off financially in Houston.

I don't like Texas so wouldn't even consider that, but sometimes people just ignore the facts of how California is expensive in many ways and San Diego is a place that just doesn't pay all that well compared to most cities.

And the term Sunshine Tax is kind of a well known thing in San diego. Even if you don't feel like you aren't a part of that, not to hear of it is a bit odd.

[bloom]

Originally Posted by Sassberto

Houston is a big city and a business city. People go there to make money. It has low COL and a diverse global economy. San Diego is a beautiful, expensive, regional city where people move to enjoy life.

nurse, teacher, police & fire, construction, you will make more in CA generally, but it won't offset the higher cost of living. If you are a white collar professional, you can make more in SF, maybe LA, probably less in SD. Compared to SD, there are exponentially more jobs in Houston or Dallas.

If you're already established in San Diego, it's going to be pretty tough to trade off San Diego for Houston unless you had to.

How about Seattle?

[Hawaii4evr]

Houston has some advantages-I like the greenery due to more rainfall there, and definitely cheaper. The Gulf beaches have warmer water in the summertime than the Pacific off of San Diego. But even though I've complained about San Diego being more conservative than I'd like, Texas is a whole 'nother animal in that regard! Also, I actually find San Diego to just be better-the climate is more comfortable much of the time, better beaches (waves, bluer water (in contrast to the brown Gulf), coastal scenery), more beautiful landscape, more laid-back, cleaner air and water quality.

[JakeDog]

One is a place you want to live in and the other is a place you find yourself living in. San Diego is a gem IMO. I can do something new outside every single weekend of the year. I've surfed before and after work. We have picnics on the beach during the work week. I can play golf comfortably almost every single day of the year. It's almost never too hot or too cold. I watch the sun set into the pacific every single day. I can take a day trip to mountain pines or a weekend to the desert. Houston is muggy. YOu can make a good life anywhere, but I actually prefer Dallas to Houston, but neither is exceptional. Just oversized office parks really.

[JakeDog]

Originally Posted by bloom

How about Seattle?

Seattle has a lot of good opportunities in certain businesses. But it's at least as expensive as San Diego now. You combine that with the oppresive cloudy dark weather, and I'd have to get paid at LEAST 2x what I make in San DIego for me to consider it. Houston would be a 4x factor, and even then, I think I'd rather not.

[shmoov_groovzsd]

Houston has better smog

http://www.webmd.com/asthma/ss/slide...st-smog-cities

[Nairobi]

Originally Posted by rgb123

In my opinion, Most of Texas and especially Houston...is kind of like family. If it is your family, you might have a love/hate or mostly love relationship with it. If you are not from there, well forget about it, its a face only a mother could love.

You do realize that a huge chunk of this city is made up of transplants, don't you? Many of these people that I've met end up loving Houston and have no desire to leave. So, no, there's not much truth in your statement.

What is true is that, for many, Houston is an acquired taste. It's a city that many aren't sure about at first, but end up falling in love with.