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I live in northern Ohio. I believe houses here sell on average for $150,000-$200,000 but I know you can buy the tiny bungalows for as little as $70,000. Rent runs about $500-$600 a month for a one bedroom in an okay neighborhood. You can find them cheaper depending on what kind of neighbors you are willing to put up with. ;)
Clothes vary too. Your average Made in China, Wal-Mart shirt runs $8-$15 as do the pants. But you could get clothes for a $1 at thrift shops, if you wanted. But shop at the mall for the cool, brand name stuff and you are looking at $20-$50 for a shirt or pants.
Ground beef is $2 a pound for the low end beef. Milk is $3.50 a gallon. Dry noodles are $1 (or a bit less) for a bag.
Down South, things cost less, but wages are less. West Coast, things cost a whole lot more and wages are a whole lot more.
Good luck!
Here's a good page that compares city to city differences [houseandhome.msn.com]
We recently moved out of the "city" into the country and our cost of living is down almost 10%. It was a nice raise we gave ourselves.
Housing is a bit more expensive. The average house runs for about $200,000 {give or take a few thousand}. Rent in an ok neighborhood for a one-bedroom will not go lower than $700. The same apartment in a nice neighborhood will go for around $800.
I think meals are pretty much standard, once again it all depends where you go to eat when you eat out, but buying food at the supermarket should get you the same prices as you would get anywhere else in the US if you choose the right markets.
I think that you can get an idea of how much each location costs by looking at a website like salary.com By picking a “job description” and finding out how much that particular job gets paid in the different markets, you can get a feel about their cost of living.
For example, someone with a few years of experience in a particular profession gets paid about $60,000 in my market, but if they were to move to a small town in Alabama, they would not be able to get more than $50,000. However, if they moved to NYC, they could command at least $72,000.
There are probably “cost of living” adjustment calculators in the net, just too lazy to look for them right now.
Edit: duckhunter beat me to it with the link to the cost of living calculator. :)
Highest quality ground beef (less than 7% fat, from sirloin): $2.99 per pound. Milk: $2.49 per gallon, whole milk - slightly less for skim. Spaghetti: $.79 per 16 ounce package. Tomato sauce: 8 ounce can $.59. Produce is fairly inexpensive most always, with hothouse tomatoes only $3.49 per pound in the winter, and far less for fresh in the summer. Diesel fuel: $1.849 per gallon. No clue about gasoline. Our power here (different power company than in town) runs around $50 per month year round (no refrigerated air or forced-air heating); propane gas about $700 a year (heating, cooking, water heating); water (sprng fed system) $25 per month averaged over a year. Clothing as hannamyluv says....
WHERE is a HUGE factor....
And it isn't just a question of where... it's also a matter of what you're buying... An area may have very expensive real estate, but relatively cheap medical care, or it may have very low rental prices, but high prices in the local stores.
Here in Alaska, the stores are very expensive, and so is rent, but buying a house is very cheap compared to California or western Oregon. OTOH, a friend of mine from Georgia discovered that it cost less to send his wife back to Georgia to visit family for a week and get dental work done, than it would cost for her to visit a dentist here in Fairbanks.
Rent here ranges from $400 (for crappy places) to $2000 and up. I'm moving out of a nice 2 bedroom apartment with an attached garage and the rent is under $800 a month. Houses in KC start around $70k and go to several million. Fuel is about $1.75 per gallon here.
You will pay less for housing in inner plains (Kansas,missouri etc) , south (texas , new mexico etc) and midwest (Ohio,Indiana,Michigan) and you will pay more in the coasts!
Also flea ,do you have the proper visas to work/live in US?
<!>WW is a great community. Keep it on!
Welcome to WebmasterWorld flea. Glad you like it already.
If your are willing to compromise living in Canada, everything is about 20 % cheaper.
Here is the catch, the governement(s) will suck 45 % of your gross revenue before you cash it, and tax 15 % of all your spendings after that (including toilet paper). :)
plano/dallas is very materialistic. it's a lifestyle cost that tends to be majority of the budget. houses range from the 150's - a couple mil (as with anyplace, depending on the area). frisco is just north and for a few years was the fastest growing city in the country. if you get in now, prices are great. it's got awesome schools and everything is new. with dallas area you tend to spend more for food/drinks and you drive everywhere.
austin - awesome place. real estate prices are ridiculous. you can live far from everything and pay less, but you're going to make up for it in gas. austin is very spread out. food is fairly cheap and night life is pretty cheap (lots of college students). only thing thats expensive is housing. apts can run from 500-2000 for a 1 bd rm depending on the area, anything less than 500 for a 1 bd rm probably isn't going to be somewhere you want to live. houses in the stix are about 150-200. great places to live in the central area range from 250 up. 250-400 won't get you much though. move to dallas/houston and buy a bigger house (if you're looking at texas)
new york - everything is ridiculous. i pay thru the nose for a alcove studio (a room with an area for the bed - 600 sq ft - over 2k, one bdrom in my bldg is 3100 i think). i live in midtown manhattan couple blocks from central park. there are cheaper places, but when i was looking, 1800 will get you what they call a one bedroom. it was a living room with another room the size of a queen bed. you're looking at a walk-up pre-war building (old). my building is a brand new highrise (48 stories), they're still not done with the construction. food is expensive here, drinks are expensive, groceries seem to be about the same as everywhere else i've been. if you're looking to buy, you have a ton of options. co-ops, condos, brownstones, and lofts. the bigger the space, the more the tag is going to be.
I lived in DFW for a while and its really an inexpensive and at the same time a nice place!
You can usually go by the home prices. If a 3 bedroom house is 90K in my area and a 3 bedroom is 240K in someone else's area of the same size in the same "type" of neighborhood - you can usually be safe in guessing that most stuff will cost more in general in the area with the more expensive home.
You might consider your transportation costs. The cost of purchasing a vehicle, registration, insurance, inspections, fuel, maintenance and PARKING vs the cost for public transportation.
I've had experience with public transportation in 4 different areas, Atlanta, Houston, Dallas, and the Bay Area.
Atlanta deserves an A++ for it's public transportation system. You do not need an automobile in Atlanta.
A monthly pass on MARTA is $52.50 and you can board any bus or train.
Houston has a decent transportation (last time I was there) and a monthly pass is $35.00. However, Houston is also sprawled across a very large area, you almost have to have a vehicle.
Dallas just blows as far as public transportation. It's not reliable, and they just keep piling junk on top of junk to try to fix it. One could easily spend 4 hours a day on the bus, vs 2 hours a day stuck in traffic.
Bay Area. Another good public transportation system, BART.
Service is decent throughout most of the Bay Area, with connecting bus service on both sides of the bay. It's hard to tell what a monthly pass would cost, but it looks like about $30.00 month. Owning a car in San Fransisco or Berkeley is a bit like owning a pet albatross. All parking is at a premium.
Rent for an older one bedroom apt (probably considered a penthouse suite in Manhattan:) ) $625 includes some utilities + about $100.00/month for others. This is on the low end and the average is probably around $800 - $1000 in an apartment complex.
To buy a house would be at least $150,000 for something kinda old and small and they easily hit $500,000 within 20 miles of here.
Car insurance on a relatively small car $100.00 - $150.00/month
Gas +/- $2.00/Gallon
Average (or is it median?) new car price in the US - $27,000
Lowest new car price for something reliable, probably around $12,000 off the lot.
Lowest used car price for something with a decent chance of running for a while $5,000 (might be 10 years old) - $12,000 (relatively new).
Local (land-line) phone service +/- $20.00/month
Cell phone $30.00 - $100.00/month
Dial-up Net Access +/- $20.00/month
High Speed Net Access +/- $40.00/month
$35,000 per year will (barely) cover the above expenses (low rent, cell, net, food, gas, utilities) and leave about $200.00/month for a car payment. You won't be able to save much of anything at 35k.
More local stats [montcopa.org]
I've heard from reliable sources there are places in North Dakota where you can get a home for $60,000 that would sell for over $1,000,000 in Miami, Florida. If your business is Internet-based and you can run it from anywhere, one of the Dakotas might be a good choice for you since the cost of living is (allegedly) so much less than average.
And just for some perspective on how big the U.S. really is, our family is about to drive 23 hours to get to our vacation destination - which is only about a third of the country away from us.
In Canada your health care is all covered by the government. So if you are moving to the states don't forget to factor in health insurance. This can be a large monthly expense as the Americans here will tell you.
Gas, food, clothing are all a little higher than average.
Parking tickets were my biggest unexpected expense. Finding the boot on your vehicle is a real drag...
Its simple ...If you are going to earn average then canada is a good place because of the free health care and the extensive welfare programs but if you are a high networth induvidual canada is a bad place to live :)
No offence canadians :)
We have lots of those up here. You would have to be very petty person (read: C Black) to leave your own country just reduce your taxes marginally. Those people exist for sure, but there is very few of them.
Besides, the real rich can always hire accountants and lawyers to hide their money.
Rugles , Actually i left a low tax and inexpensive country (India) and living in a relatively high tax and expensive country (USA) :)
Rent: 1 bedroom $650.00 to $1000.00
Home Prices: Higher than most in the Midwest, demand is high due to high income bracket.
Property is an excellent investment here, with a little work, the right property can increase in value 2x within 4 years.
However, the winters here can be brutal.
We have 10,000 lakes, for recreation, many of these should actually be called swamps.
The mosquitos during a wet summer can be terrible, otherwise you could not ask for better summer home.
It is a high tech community, because of all the corporate offices.
