See Which Cities Pay the Highest Software Engineering Salaries Adjusted for COL • Hacker News Board

Re: See Which Cities Pay the Highest Software Engineering Salaries Adjusted for COL

#11

Post by blaser-waffle » Tue, Sep 17, 2019, 5:05 PM UTC

Reston, VA has has best salaries relative to COL? LOL.

Fairfax County, VA, is literally the 2nd richest county in the US; the #1 richest county is right next door. Traffic is heavy, and housing costs keep goin up. Salaries are decent, esp. in the cleared government sector, though civilian gigs are pretty lucrative too.

Don't get me wrong, you'll probably have a decent lifestyle there -- I think about moving back occasionally -- but it's nothing like Omaha or Columbus.

Source: am from there, ran data centers in Reston, Herndon, and Ashburn.

Re: See Which Cities Pay the Highest Software Engineering Salaries Adjusted for COL

#12

Post by mesozoic » Tue, Sep 17, 2019, 5:34 PM UTC

This is good however I want to take into account savings value also. So after paying for a basic living I save the rest. Eventually I move to a very low COL place so If the rest is much more I'm better off.

Re: See Which Cities Pay the Highest Software Engineering Salaries Adjusted for COL

#13

Post by alexhutcheson » Tue, Sep 17, 2019, 6:31 PM UTC

blaser-waffle wrote: post #11

Reston, VA has has best salaries relative to COL? LOL. Fairfax County, VA, is literally the 2nd richest county in the US; the #1 richest county is right next door. Traffic is heavy, and housing costs keep goin up. Salaries are decent, esp. in the cleared government sector, though civilian gigs are pretty lucrative too. Don't get me wrong, you'll probably have a decent lifestyle there -- I think about moving back occa…

If you work in or around Reston itself, I think the situation is not so bad. There are plenty of places in Loudoun County in the 25-40 min commute range that are still relatively affordable, because they are too far away from Tysons/Arlington/DC/etc. to be a reasonable commute. They're expensive, but not nearly as expensive as a comparable commute would be in the NY, Boston, or even Atlanta areas. Overall I think the "live in Loudoun, work in Reston" is a comparatively good value compared to the other metro areas that have high software engineer salaries.

On the other hand, living in Reston/Herndon and commuting to Arlington or DC is both extremely expensive and a guaranteed miserable commute. The Silver Line will probably help when it opens, but it will still be a long train ride, and you'll be at the mercy of WMATA.

Re: See Which Cities Pay the Highest Software Engineering Salaries Adjusted for COL

#14

Post by alexhutcheson » Tue, Sep 17, 2019, 6:45 PM UTC

Using Zillow prices within cities is a flawed methodology, because it's sensitive to how city boundaries are drawn, which varies a lot - sometimes city boundaries only include their historic "downtown" core, while other cities include suburbs and even exurbs outside the "urban" area. For an example, compare the boundaries of Boston (https://goo.gl/maps/8DCq5vc4vyMR8BVU8) with those of Jacksonville, FL (https://goo.gl/maps/BA3sdH4X7iebiqpV9).

Ideally, you'd prefer to compare housing prices within a fixed commuting time of the job location. This is pretty hard, so an alternative would be to use housing prices within the Metropolitan Statistical Area[1], but that's often too coarse.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan_statistical_area

Re: See Which Cities Pay the Highest Software Engineering Salaries Adjusted for COL

#15

Post by vonseel » Wed, Sep 18, 2019, 10:33 AM UTC

I had no idea that so many of these places besides CA/NYC are so much more expensive per sq ft average than Texas cities. Denver is quite a bit more expensive, for example, and Reston, VA, which I assume to be a nearby area to DC, is also up there.

Re: See Which Cities Pay the Highest Software Engineering Salaries Adjusted for COL

#16

Post by lemm » Fri, Sep 20, 2019, 5:07 PM UTC

ohnocentral wrote: post #2

I've not visited most of the top 10 on this list, but I wonder if what you trade for COL improvements makes up for the experience of living in those locations. (A complex question if you factor in commute times, community factors and personal interests at a minimum.)

It seems like the sweet spot is around the middle of the list - places like Dallas, Atlanta, Denver, Salt Lake City, etc. Good salaries and lower cost of living than California, but you will have all the quality of life features of a bigger city. I guess that's why those middle-tier cities on this list are also at the top of the fastest growing places in the country.