Business Week recently published a story regarding the best and worst cities for careers. Below are top three best/worst cities for software engineers:
Top-Earning Cities (Cost-of-living adjusted)
1. Houston $91,200 ($102,500)
2. Charlotte $88,300 ($97,000)
3. Dallas $89,300 ($96,000)
Bottom-Earning Cities (Cost-of-living adjusted)
1. San Francisco $113,900 ($66,400)
2. Los Angeles $97,500 ($65,000)
3. New York $103,500 ($48,900)
Well wouldn’t you know, LA made the bottom three. It looks like I’m making roughly 33% less after adjustments. Tack on taxes and a gf (j/k babe 
), no wonder I feel broke all the time. That being said, I don’t think it’s that bad. You can do a lot worse (ie working in NY) and there are ways to get around the high cost of living in LA: live at home and bum off your parents; live in the ghetto (San Pedro/Carson); eat top ramen; take extra napkins from the cafeteria so you don’t have to buy tissues. You just have to live outside the box in order to live comfortably in LA.
OK, so I’m being a little facetious, but when you really do compare LA to one of the top three cities, it is a maddening. I posted a while back about how the big three cities of Texas, DFW, Austin, and Houston, are some of the fastest growing cities in America. Not surprisingly, Houston and DFW are in the list above because housing, transportation, food, and other stuff are cheap. In terms of taxes, supposedly there are NO state taxes.
Coincidentally, I was surfing the UT-Austin McCombs Bschool website today and read something that illustrates the cost disparity in housing between CA and TX. Supposedly a one bedroom apartment can be had for $750 and that was the high end of the scale. Just to see whether they were BS-ing, I looked up some apt rentals on craigslist-austin and it turns out the numbers are in the ballpark. I’m not sure you can find a decent 1 bdr apt in LA for $750 where you don’t have to wear a bullet proof vest.
We pay more to live in a place that has fantastic weather even though today was freakishly hot. It’s definitely some food for thought on where I’d considering moving too if one day LA becomes insanely expensive or if I really wanted to buy a house. For now, I’ll live with the top ramen breakfasts, lunches and dinners and call LA home sweet home.