Cost of living comparison

Thanks Pheller. Great insights. I’ve never considered SoCal. Interesting. 

93GX, we’re moving for health reasons, can’t get a whole lot cheaper than where we are without 10 meth labs per block. 

In reply to DrBoost : I think it’s not horribly realistic.  What it costs you to live is far more dependent on who you are and how you live than a spreadsheet will show.  

I live in an impossibly wealthy community  where if you choose a weeks worth of groceries will easily run over $300 

While I could easily spend less than 1/2 of that by careful shopping I’ve chosen to try to remain around $200 a week.  

Other  expenses such as gasoline depends more on  the price of a barrel of oil than location.  

Property taxes vary dramatically from one community to another. A million dollar property here is only about $4500 but that same property near downtown would likely be three -four times as much. 

But yes transportation costs increase at least from here to the downtown area. But would be lower from one suburb to another. 

Schools vary  as does entertainment places.  The cost of those variables vary  by such a significant degree as to be nearly impossible to predict. 

The best way i could say to do it is ask the locals. I have friends that are contemplating moving from australia and the cost of living calculators ive seen are pretty much just dart thrown guesses as far as i can tell

Dr.Boost, are you moving to avoid allergens like mold and stuff? 

Don't forget taxes, crime rate and medical care. 

I have seen sites that factor these as well as those mentioned above.

pheller said:

Dr.Boost, are you moving to avoid allergens like mold and stuff? 

Yeah, that and seasonal effectiveness (?) disorder, and the cold damp weather gives me pneumonia and/or bronchitis every year. 

I like the Budweiser index. $3 is my happy place. Much less and I'm wishing they put sawdust on the floor. If happy hour is $5 I better be in Manhattan across from the fashion institute. 

I used a few different ones, then just used Zillow to look at housing prices when we were thinking about Austin last year. 

I spoke to a member of the forum through email, who is actually a manager for the type of work I do. Figured I'd like come in at $35-45k more than I make in OKC, nearly all of which would go to housing. A house similar to mine, 20 minutes from the downtown area, seems to clock in around $300-400k vs the $156k I paid for my house.

Texas has no state income tax compared to Oklahoma's 5.25%, but property taxes are more than doubled. Super rough "back o' the napkin math" showed these would be close to canceling each other. 

That said, when my girlfriend finishes her BS this December (fingers crossed), we will likely be evaluating many different options around the country. 

Bumping this because I found this interesting. The data is from 2014, so it might not be perfect,  but I think it could still  be a useful tool for anybody considering a move.

Note that $100 is relatively worth 47% more in a light blue area than the most orange areas.

jesus christ they misspelled "Areas" on their color-coding legend.