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Cities with High Salary to Cost of Living Ratios for Software Developers

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Re: Cities with High Salary to Cost of Living Ratios for Software Developers

#251

Post by steveax »

tomkinstinch wrote: post #108
WhitneyLand wrote: post #68

For those that wish to own a home, make sure to consider property taxes. Texas has no income tax but very high property taxes at ~3% per year of home value. So a 350k house will add ~$900/month on top of a mortgage. SV has a much lower rate but you'll probably pay more than Texas in absolute terms because 350k houses do not exist there. Colorado is a nice balance. Home prices in between SV and Texas, but one of the l…

Homeowner's insurance is also to be considered as a non-negligible fraction of the monthly cost of a house. When I bought a house in 2008 in upstate NY, I was moderately surprised to see that with taxes and insurance my monthly payment more than doubled from the amount I was to pay from mortgage alone (granted this was at a time with a historically low interest rate).

Homeowner's insurance, or mortgage insurance? The former is cheap, the latter, not so much.

Re: Cities with High Salary to Cost of Living Ratios for Software Developers

#252

Post by steveax »

serve_yay wrote: post #170
jimktrains2 wrote: post #88

No mention of Pittsburgh! We have a fairly low cost-of-living and decent salaries for tech.

I'm from there originally, and I agree, but the weather really is a problem. It's terrible. I live in Portland now, an area renowned for its gray rainy days and lack of sunlight. And yet, it has been 50º-60º and sunny for nearly a month now. Whenever I check Pittsburgh it's hovering around 0º. It's really a shame because I love Pittsburgh.

Don't get used to it. This winter has been historically dry and warm in PDX. Snowpack in the Cascades is ~11% of normal this year.

Re: Cities with High Salary to Cost of Living Ratios for Software Developers

#253

Post by timbuckley »

eitally wrote: post #129
tilly132 wrote: post #28

Except cities aren't really fungible. If you like big cities, then NYC may be the best place to live regardless of salary. If you like the outdoors, then maybe another city. If you are raising a family, then maybe you want to be in a quieter area with good schools. If you want to be in a tech hub, then you should be in Silicon Valley. And if you have a spouse, that is all adjusted by their needs and the industry they…

Cities aren't fungible, but on the other hand, it can pay benefits to live in a city where there is a plethora of opportunities just in case you need to find a new job.

Which, in this line of work, happens to be just about everywhere.

Re: Cities with High Salary to Cost of Living Ratios for Software Developers

#254

Post by wallflower »

pavel_lishin wrote: post #177
avn2109 wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> "Plenty of single people love life here on salaries of $45-60k, and are even able to save money." Here's some anecdata: I lived like a king on my $30,000 grad student stipend for years in Manhattan. And maxed out my IRA every year at the same time. The trick is just to get an apartment somewhere uncool, then you're rich.

Where in Manhattan did you live? I'm going to guess Washington Heights.

Total total non-sequitor.

Really long and good article about Lin-Manuel Miranda who had a hit Broadway musical about Washington Heights.

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/02/09/hamiltons

Re: Cities with High Salary to Cost of Living Ratios for Software Developers

#256

Post by tsotha »

sosborn wrote: post #164
yourapostasy wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Deal velocity. An "all cash" offer at 1% less than asking is more attractive to the seller's agent (not necessarily the seller) than a loan-process-backed offer, because the agent wants to close quickly and move onto the next deal. The loan process adds days and weeks to the deal, while the "cash" offer can literally close tomorrow. I'm scare quoting "cash" because what is really happening most of the time is the cas…

There is also the fact that "pre-qualified" != "pre-approved". It is quite possible these days for a loan to be rejected at the last minute.

This. Closing a real estate deal is like running the hurdles. Cash buyers are starting the race at the midpoint.

Re: Cities with High Salary to Cost of Living Ratios for Software Developers

#257

Post by tsotha »

tilly132 wrote: post #28

Except cities aren't really fungible. If you like big cities, then NYC may be the best place to live regardless of salary. If you like the outdoors, then maybe another city. If you are raising a family, then maybe you want to be in a quieter area with good schools. If you want to be in a tech hub, then you should be in Silicon Valley. And if you have a spouse, that is all adjusted by their needs and the industry they…

On a software developer's salary there are a whole lot of cities in which you'll have to live like a student if you have a family.

Re: Cities with High Salary to Cost of Living Ratios for Software Developers

#258

Post by tsotha »

thorntonbf wrote: post #124

Selfishly, I'm glad to see that Nashville isn't on this list! Though I'd be interested to see how it compares. There seem to be a lot of cities that offer good talent with a great cost of living - sort of cities poised for a breakout. I wonder what kind of critical mass you have to have in other areas - i.e. concentration of tech talent, infrastructure, educational resources, etc... to really be a great tech communit…

There's definitely a network effect. And abundance of tech jobs draw in and abundance of tech workers, which draws in companies (jobs) looking for workers, which draws in workers looking for jobs...

That's why you see municipalities failing at becoming "the next Silicon Valley" so often. It's not impossible for new tech hubs to form, but it's not as easy as you'd think by looking at CoL.

Re: Cities with High Salary to Cost of Living Ratios for Software Developers

#259

Post by tsotha »

imaginenore wrote: post #75

Texas personal income tax is zero. That's a huge advantage. But then you have to live in Texas.

States have to collect taxes somehow, and though Texas doesn't have a personal income tax, you pay through the nose in property taxes.

And parts of Texas are very nice.

Re: Cities with High Salary to Cost of Living Ratios for Software Developers

#260

Post by hkarthik »

s73v3r wrote: post #204
nugget wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tremendously is relative. Austin and SV real estate prices are not close at all. High property taxes keep home prices lower across almost all of Texas. Austin prices are limited in their 'irrational exuberance' upside since there's no way to finance a property tax bill and existing homeowners start to suffer. California is the opposite with low tax rates and proposition 13 covering existing homeowners - perfect condi…

The real estate prices aren't close, but what about salary? What about the real estate price relative to salary?

The salaries in neither area match up to current housing prices, nor do they keep up with the increasing prices year over year. What I have observed is that housing prices going up by 20% usually results in salaries only going up by 8%.

After 5 years, houses cost twice as much but salaries are only 40% higher. And to see those salary gains you have to switch companies and risk being labeled a "job hopper".

The game is rigged for developers in most of the tech hubs. There is a reason so many of us opt out of it by working remote in low cost areas.

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