Ten most expensive cities in United States, and Seattle isn't one of them (for rent, insurance)

[Radical_Car]

I don't know if seattle is one of the top 10 most expensive cities in the USA, but forbes put houston at number 8 above Boston and Washington DC. The fact that Houston is on the list is laughable, let alone being above Boston and Washington DC, and theres no San Diego on the list.

America's Most Expensive Cities - Forbes.com

Heres the list so you don't have to put up with forbes crappy site

10:Washington DC
9:Boston
8:Houston
7:White Plains, NY
6:Chicago
5:San Francisco
4:Honolulu
3:Miami
2:Los Angeles
1:New York City

[SaltyDawg]

Texas actually has pretty horrific property taxes, so it's not that out of bounds to have Houston listed there.

That said, I'd agree that Houston is generally a pretty cheap place, particularly in comparison to the rest of that list.

[Gentoo]

I'm really surprised San Diego isn't on that list. I would imagine it being in the number 7 slot. I find it hilarious that LA is on that list when I hear a lot of people there say it's expensive but not as bad as San Francisco. Yet LA is number 2 LOL!

[blueshogun96]

The fact that NYC is #1 is laughable itself. I mean really, what's so special about NYC? Been there twice and there was nothing impressive about it. The snow is as ridiculous as the humidity and the expense of living there.

[eskercurve]

What Seattle has is very restrictive environmental ordinances which drive up the cost of the land underneath a house, not the house itself. If zoning and public lands and environmental laws were more lax, I'm sure you'd see cheaper housing. I think a UW study found that on average a 3 bed 2 bath house has about $200k added onto the price just due to those laws.

Then again, if we didn't have those laws, I'm sure we wouldn't nearly have as much beautiful public parks, beaches, and things would get just ridiculous, like 30 story condo complexes in Ballard, that would just blight this beautiful area.

I say this with a bit of chagrin because I'm looking around for a house and it's not back to Earth yet, IMHO.

Another thing which drives up home values is the average annual income per household. I think it's around 80k. That's AVERAGE. However, it is not the most expensive place to live in.

I wonder how they calculated their cost of living, as I consider Seattle to be more or as expensive as Chicago.

[Radical_Car]

Originally Posted by SaltyDawg

Texas actually has pretty horrific property taxes, so it's not that out of bounds to have Houston listed there.

That said, I'd agree that Houston is generally a pretty cheap place, particularly in comparison to the rest of that list.

I agree with the property taxes and the fact that Houston is so large that it lacks reliable public transportation, but stuff like housing is soooo cheap there, unlike housing in Los Angeles. Los Angeles is also very spread out and big and also lacks good public transportation, but the housing there is outragous. Even if the property taxes are lower in California, the housing is significantly much much more then Houston. Forbes list average price of a house in Houston at 132,900 in 2008 //www.city-data.com/city/Houston-Texas.html and Los Angeles at 574,300. //www.city-data.com/city/Los-An...alifornia.html




I don't think of Chicago as being as expensive as Forbes claims, and I always thought San Francisco was overall more expensive then Los Angeles.

[ggh7]

[quote=Gentoo;13393487]I'm really surprised San Diego isn't on that list.

If you dont buy a house in San Diego, its really not bad. Just found a 2 BR Apt for rent for $1100. Cheaper than almost any city ive researched

[blueshogun96]

Originally Posted by Radical_Car

I don't think of Chicago as being as expensive as Forbes claims...

I'm quite positive it is. Chicago is quite ridiculous when it comes to expenses of living. So much for so little if you ask me.

[specificnorthwest]

two things :

1) this article is from 2008...not totally irrelevant, but perhaps not taking into account the full effect of the recesion

2) "expensive" just doesn't mean the price of a house..it factors in all living expenses (taxes, energy, transportation, food, etc) AND factors in earning potential...I don't know much about Houston, but perhaps lower earning offset low housing prices, and combined with other expenses as other have mentioned, make it an expensive city relatively..

[texastrigirl]

I lived in Austin and it is on average more expensive in Houston so I am surprised Houston is even on this list. Things that were more expensive in Texas than they are for us here? Property taxes, professional fees (my CPA license for 3 years here is about the same cost as one year was there), insurance for home and auto, energy (other than gasoline...but more public transport options here) and water. The main things that are more expensive here are cost of housing and eating out. We shop at Trader Joes so our grocery bill is same or less as that is not an option in TX. But I agree too that I don't know that Houston's salaries are that high relative to their COL. So I would have to read the whole article to see what they were basing in on.