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Collaborative international cost-of-living index

expatistan.com

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Re: Collaborative international cost-of-living index

#21

Post by jnbiche »

pardo wrote: post #7
chevreuil wrote: post #6

Main economic institutions [1] already maintains databases of consumer goods and services price across countries, but they don't give easy access to the raw data. Glad to see Expatistan filling this gap. [1] International Comparison Program for the Worldbank ( http://icp.worldbank.org/ ), Eurostats ( http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/statistics_explained/index.... )

Yes, there are a number of international institutions collecting this data, and almost every single national statistical office collect price data regularly. Sadly, they tend not to make the raw data available.

>Yes, there are a number of international institutions collecting this data, and almost every single national statistical office collect price data regularly. Sadly, they tend not to make the raw data available.

And so you start up a project to change that....and then don't make the raw data available? I'm confused.

Re: Collaborative international cost-of-living index

#23

Post by jpatokal »

rmc wrote: post #16

Once again asking about "expats", which just means "rich immigrant". You could get totally different answers if you were asking for "main immigrant part of $CITY". The survey to collect data even says "Do not enter prices that can only be found .. in [e]specially cheap neighborhoods", which usually means "immigrant".

Rich expats are pretty much by definition not "immigrants", they're usually visiting for a few years with a fat "expat package" courtesy of the company. But these are increasingly a dying breed, and most expats are neither fat cat expats nor dirt-poor refugees, but somewhere in the middle.

Also, much of the calculator asks for things like a liter of gas or a bottle of Coke, whose price is not going change radically no matter where you shop.

Re: Collaborative international cost-of-living index

#24

Post by fab13n »

VolatileVoid wrote: post #13

You're comparing cost of living without taking into account median salaries? I don't think any comparison is complete without some sort of salary survey.

True, and another key component, which will become even more important once median incomes are taken into account, is public services.

For instance Paris is described to be about as expansive as San Francisco. But in Paris, you have your kids' school and your health insurance for free (well, included into your taxes). Plus, if you studied there, you don't have a student loan to pay back.

Re: Collaborative international cost-of-living index

#26

Post by kator »

Would be nice to take into consideration Sales Tax, Income Tax and Property Taxes. In the states it can be fairly misleading if you ignore these factors as some states have no personal income tax as an example and others have crazy sales tax and personal income tax combined with property tax. All these drain a persons resources when they move from one locale to another.

Not sure how to capture "soft" stuff like health care and/or vacation etc. I recently was surprised to learn the in New York an employer doesn't have to pay out unused vacation where as in other states they have to by law. This sort of stuff can certainly catch someone off guard when leaving a job to relocate.

Otherwise it's a very cool concept...

Re: Collaborative international cost-of-living index

#28

Post by marianminds »

I've used numbeo before and I had a look at this, comparing about 10 or so different cities. The format and function is pretty much the same and I use them both for the same purpose -- a simple comparison of aggregate data on different cities using the same metric. I moved to Rome a year ago and in another year I'll be moving to some German-speaking country, so I'm comparing different cities now. It's not important to me whether the rental estimates are 100% correct or slightly high/low, what's important is that the data is collected the same way for both cities under comparison. I want a broader view to narrow the search, and then I will go elsewhere to get more accurate info -- apartment searches in the respective cities, for example. If you get enough data from varied enough sources to minimise biases (e.g. expats might live in the more expensive parts of the city and not know the local tricks, or most of your contributors might only be from a certain subset of expats) then I don't need to know the comparison of a hundred different types of little things because I can get more exact information elsewhere. What I'd recommend doing instead of narrowing your data selection is to actually broaden the scope of your comparison -- compare aggregated measures of quality of life, average temperatures/rainfall, hours of sunlight per day, number of bars or gyms per capita, etc. If I know what city I'm looking at, I can easily find a list of apartments for rent and get direct information that way. What I can't do as easily is compare the general perspective of life satisfaction or public transport penetration, crime stats, etc.

Re: Collaborative international cost-of-living index

#29

Post by phaer »

jpatokal wrote: post #23
rmc wrote: post #16

Once again asking about "expats", which just means "rich immigrant". You could get totally different answers if you were asking for "main immigrant part of $CITY". The survey to collect data even says "Do not enter prices that can only be found .. in [e]specially cheap neighborhoods", which usually means "immigrant".

Rich expats are pretty much by definition not "immigrants", they're usually visiting for a few years with a fat "expat package" courtesy of the company. But these are increasingly a dying breed, and most expats are neither fat cat expats nor dirt-poor refugees, but somewhere in the middle. Also, much of the calculator asks for things like a liter of gas or a bottle of Coke, whose price is not going change radically n…

The price of a bottle of coke can change quite radically depending on where in a city you are buying it. Venice is one example for such a city.

Re: Collaborative international cost-of-living index

#30

Post by freshyill »

This is OK if I want to move from one major city to another, but not for much else. If I, for example, wanted to move to a smaller city two hours away and work remotely most of the time, it's not going to be of much use. This fun to play with, but is it really useful?
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