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Collaborative international cost-of-living index

expatistan.com

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Re: Collaborative international cost-of-living index

#71

Post by whybroke »

leccine wrote: post #62
whybroke wrote: post #14

Wherever numbeo and expatistan get their data, it's utterly hilarious that the summaries rank San Jose CA about the same as Valanecia/Alicante Spain. Let me just say, there is an absolutely ludicrous error somewhere.

Yes, in your interpretation what that data means.

Just a quick glance at craigslist for 1000sq foot rental in San Jose, CA shows that expatistan's "expensive price" is below average. While the Valencia Spain rental price is higher than any I have ever seen personally.

Likewise Spanish food prices are inflated on those sites which you can confirm by looking at mercadona.es which is a mid-high end grocery store in Spain.

But mostly: Valencia and Alicante have huge populations of retired working class British people. There is no way on this earth a retired working class British person could survive in San Jose let alone thrive.

Re: Collaborative international cost-of-living index

#72

Post by YZF »

OrwellianChild wrote: post #66

This data is either hiding inputs or weighting the outputs inaccurately... I looked at an example of moving to Vancouver, BC from Seattle, WA. Housing was listed as 5% favorable to Vancouver. The sub-elements listed were as follows: Vancouver Seattle Variance Monthly rent for 85 m2 (900 Sqft) furnished accommodation in EXPENSIVE area $2,301 $2,216 -4% Utilities 1 month (heating, electricity, gas ...) for 2 people in…

I think the sum would be of more interest than a weighted average. The specific comparison between Vancouver and Seattle is almost meaningless for various reasons:

- Nobody rents furnished accommodation in Vancouver, BC. It's almost unheard of.

- You can buy your TV across the border and bring it over (same for microwave).

- Food will generally be more expensive in Vancouver.

- Gas will be more expensive in Vancouver.

- If you buy a house here expect to pay a lot more in Vancouver for a comparable property.

- Taxes are higher (though you do get services in return).

EDIT: As someone who is pretty familiar with both areas I would expect it to be cheaper to live in the Greater Seattle area vs. the Greater Vancouver area. There's a lot of YMMV though.

Re: Collaborative international cost-of-living index

#73

Post by seanmcdirmid »

Spooky23 wrote: post #50
kator wrote: post #26

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 healt…

Yeah some of the big states are fun. I'm in NY, my property taxes are about 60% of my mortgage payment.

High property tax rate? High appreciation on your property? Or small mortgage?

Re: Collaborative international cost-of-living index

#74

Post by seanmcdirmid »

lucisferre wrote: post #46
kator wrote: post #26

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 healt…

Sales taxes shouldn't be too hard to include, but I noticed the exact same problem in the comparison.

Most countries don't cut that out of the price. Only in the states, I think, do you have to do the math on the price.

Re: Collaborative international cost-of-living index

#76

Post by nandemo »

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.

I don't think it's possible to meaningfully take salaries into account unless they also have a database with salaries for each profession. In my opinion, it's much better to leave that adjustment to the user.

E.g. if you compare median salaries in San Francisco and Tokyo, you might get similar numbers. But if you're an ESL teacher, you might get paid quite a bit more in Tokyo, whereas if you're a software engineer you'll get paid a lot more in SF.

Re: Collaborative international cost-of-living index

#77

Post by Spooky23 »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #73
Spooky23 wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah some of the big states are fun. I'm in NY, my property taxes are about 60% of my mortgage payment.

High property tax rate? High appreciation on your property? Or small mortgage?

Total property tax rate (school + city) is between 2.7 and 3 percent, depending on valuation. I live in an area with fairly moderate swings in valuation.

In small cities like mine, it's killing the housing stock, as taxes are increasing faster than wages, and people are deferring maintenance.

Re: Collaborative international cost-of-living index

#78

Post by srgpqt »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #74
lucisferre wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sales taxes shouldn't be too hard to include, but I noticed the exact same problem in the comparison.

Most countries don't cut that out of the price. Only in the states, I think, do you have to do the math on the price.

In Canada, sales tax is applied at checkout and not included on price tags.

Re: Collaborative international cost-of-living index

#79

Post by seanmcdirmid »

srgpqt wrote: post #78
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most countries don't cut that out of the price. Only in the states, I think, do you have to do the math on the price.

In Canada, sales tax is applied at checkout and not included on price tags.

Ok, North America then :)

Re: Collaborative international cost-of-living index

#80

Post by goshx »

I don't think this can be used to compare moving abroad to countries that don't have USD as their currency. For instance, when comparing a Brazilian city to a US city it simply converts the Brazilian prices to dollars, which is not the right way, IMHO. People in Brazil don't make the same amount of money and they don't get paid in dollars.
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