Here's how much it costs a single person to live in the 15 largest US cities

[BNA/LION]

Some interesting information here....

San Francisco, California

Housing costs: $2,014 per month ($24,168 per year)
Total cost of living: $5,756 per month ($69,072 per year)

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/22/how-...us-cities.html

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How do you stack up to the average income in your state?
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/22/see-...our-state.html

[BBL]

My cousin-in-law winters in Brownsville. I'll have to compliment him for his cost of living savings in retirement - waiting for the improved weather in KC....
Thanks Larry.
DM

[Gharddog03]

Interesting

[bdex75]

Interesting to look at both of these together. While Indiana is cheap to live it is also pretty low on the income scale.


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[Star Ferry]

SF has become pretty bad. could become America's version of hong kong

[locutus49]

San Diego is bad enough. SF is worse, especially if you want to live down town.

[pallindrome]

Originally Posted by locutus49

San Diego is bad enough. SF is worse, especially if you want to live down town.

I'm trying to understand the economics of San Diego. It appears to be a retirement city. Not a whole lot of companies are headquartered there (major ones are WD40, Qualcomm) compared to Silicon Valley or Los Angeles where there's always an influx of people looking for jobs. So what's driving up the cost of living like housing? What am I failing to see? It can't be just UCSD.

[SDRider]

Originally Posted by pallindrome

I'm trying to understand the economics of San Diego. It appears to be a retirement city. Not a whole lot of companies are headquartered there (major ones are WD40, Qualcomm) compared to Silicon Valley or Los Angeles where there's always an influx of people looking for jobs. So what's driving up the cost of living like housing? What am I failing to see? It can't be just UCSD.

It is a number of things. There is a huge micro-brew industry here along with several other global companies that are headquartered here, not just Qualcomm. Qualcomm is probably one of the largest though.

There is also a huge military presence here, Navy and Marines, so a lot of military and their families.

Then you have the schools and local restaurants, car dealerships, shipping and fishing industries, plus tourism... it adds up.

I love living here in San Diego. My wife and I bought our home almost 20 years ago so we have a ton of equity in it and our mortgage payment is well below what you would pay for a decent 2 bedroom apartment. I guess we are economically viable.

[ttomczak]

Below is for NC, but 2k a month for San Fran seems really really low...

North Carolina

Average household income: $67,367

North Carolina comes in 36th for average annual income. Its hourly employees do slightly better, with the average hourly rate of $21.77 ranking 29th in the country.

The good and bad about NC is that the Triangle and Triad is high income, but the other 94 counties are much lower...

[TheVTCGuy]

Larry, is my room ready yet?

[RW16610]

Interesting stuff For some reason I would've expected New York to be a lot more.

[Star Ferry]

Originally Posted by RW16610

Interesting stuff For some reason I would've expected New York to be a lot more.

their number is for the whole city -- Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, and Staten Island.

[brandrea]

That’s an eye opener

[77T]

A key to understanding certain cities is the weighting applied to the criteria used by the Economic Institute who compiled the data.

“The calculator factors in geographic differences in cost of living and six main expenses: housing, food, transportation, health care, other basic necessities and taxes.”

Taxes can have a dramatic impact that drives up overall costs. Property, income and sales taxes are higher in some places while food and healthcare costs are about the same. The survey also assumes nobody owns their dwelling outright.


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[RW16610]

Originally Posted by Star Ferry

their number is for the whole city -- Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, and Staten Island.

Ah, makes sense

[fusionstorm]

Originally Posted by ttomczak

2k a month for San Fran seems really really low...

I checked the Economic Policy Institute's definition of Housing, and it's as follows:

Housing costs are based on the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s fair market rents, which represent rental costs (shelter rent plus utilities) at the 40th percentile in a given area for privately owned, structurally safe, and sanitary rental housing of a modest nature with suitable amenities. Studio apartments were used for one-adult families, one-bedroom apartments for two-adult families, two-bedroom apartments for families with one or two children, and three-bedroom apartments for families with three or four children.

That $2100/month number for a studio isn't too far off. Most singles try and find situations where they have a roommate or three, which reduces overall monthly spend on housing and utilities. Studios aren't in as much demand as 1BR and higher units.

[Valenciawatchrepair]

The gap between the super rich and poverty stricken widens. And it's worse in those areas. Sad. San Diego was bad when I was stationed there in 2003-2005. Can't imagine now. Ugh.

[fusionstorm]

It's not even about the extremes. There are a good number of communities here in the SF Bay Area where even a $200K/year pre-tax income isn't considered "upper middle class". Short of having either a rent controlled dwelling, or the dwelling was purchased many years ago before housing prices dramatically increased, it's becoming impossible for anyone in the lower to middle classes here to get ahead.