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America's Most Affordable Cities For Tech Workers: Seattle, Austin, and Pittsburgh (prnewswire.com)

Posted by EditorDavid on from the perks-of-Pennsylvania dept.

"Seattle tech workers who own their homes can expect to have about $2,000 more in disposable income each month than tech workers in the Bay Area," according to a new study from LinkedIn and Zillow. An anonymous reader writes: "For technology workers who rent, Seattle, Austin and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania came out on top among the housing markets analyzed, with the Bay Area at #4..." the two companies reported. "Salaries for other industries don't hold up as well in the San Francisco area, though. Even highly-paid finance workers keep only about 32 percent of their incomes after paying for housing and taxes. In Charlotte or Chicago, they can pocket a median of 61 percent."

The Bay Area's high housing prices are apparently offset by the high salaries paid there to tech workers, according to the study. Even so, both home owners and renters pay roughly half the median income for housing on the west coast, "while a rental in the middle of the country costs more like 25 percent of the median income."
The report also identified the best cities for health workers -- Phoenix, Indianapolis, and Boston -- as well as for finance workers, who do best in Charlotte, Chicago and Dallas. The top 15 cities for tech workers also included those same cities except Chicago and Phoenix, while also including known tech hotspots like Denver, Atlanta, and Washington, D.C. But surprisingly the top 15 best cities for tech workers also included Detroit, Nashville, St. Paul (Minnesota) and Tampa, Florida.

12 of 127 comments (clear)

  1. Silicon Valley sucks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Silicon Valley is pretty much a wasteland now. A lot of the real innovation is taking place elsewhere in the country. Silicon Valley is full of companies built on advertising, which is a bubble that's bound to collapse. I can't see why anyone would want to move to Silicon Valley when there are far better options available now, including all of the cities listed in the summary and many others.

  2. Wrong about Austin by mattwarden · · Score: 5, Funny

    Article is wrong about Austin. It's very expensive. And there are no jobs for tech workers. And it's dirty. With marauding gangs of looters. Many reports of paranormal activity. High risk of pandemic or terrorist attack. No housing supply.

    And no Uber!

    No, no. You don't want to move to Austin. Don't even bother checking it out.

    1. Re:Wrong about Austin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      My bet is - it gave him a good house, and a nice place to live, and he doesn't want it invaded by hipsters and techies.

    2. Re:Wrong about Austin by mattwarden · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Thank you. I forgot to mention that one. Don't move here unless you want to be slaughtered by the state government.

    3. Re:Wrong about Austin by buss_error · · Score: 4, Funny

      All kidding aside, I had to drive through Austin during SXSW... Took almost 4 hours. A family member lives in Austin, about 2 miles from the grocery store. It takes an hour each way by car on days of "normal" traffic, longer if there's a traffic jam. Much faster to walk to the store. And this is Texas. We don't walk up the isle to get married - we drive.

      --
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  3. It's one of the things that bother's me by rsilvergun · · Score: 4, Interesting

    about the H1-Bs (and I know I'm being petty, but hey, I'm getting my ass kicked here financially). They're a captive audience for the renters. There's no way they're gonna buy a home while they're here on work visas. So they drive up my rent substantially. Maybe if I made enough to afford a down payment on a home but, well, with my wages depressed like this that ain't happening...

    --
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    1. Re:It's one of the things that bother's me by Mashiki · · Score: 5, Informative

      Come to Canada, guess what happens when they can buy houses(or family who can do it for them)? The price of housing goes through the roof, and now you can't afford a house or rent. It gets compounded because of the outside real estate investment that goes on too. Vancouver is one of the worst places for this double-whammy, and then there's the whole "empty house" problem(8.8% in Vancouver). Watch Seattle(and Toronto, Ontario), since Vancouver put in a foreign buyers tax they've started buying up there as well.

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      Om, nomnomnom...
  4. Personal opinion: Pittsburgh is the best by 140Mandak262Jamuna · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Low cost housing, many distinct old ethnic neighborhoods and restaurants, good school districts. Rails-to-trails have created many wonderful biking walking trails. Will feel all the four seasons. Only negatives are the narrow single laned roads. Very pictureque and beautiful, as long as you don't have to go anywhere in a hurry, it is great.

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    sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
  5. Re:Q: How many Austinites... by mattwarden · · Score: 4, Funny

    I don't get it. Everyone here was born in Cali or the Midwest, and they couldn't pick an armadillo out of a lineup.

  6. But How Much is That in... by pipingguy · · Score: 4, Funny

    "about $2,000 more in disposable income each month"

    That's, like, almost 5 new MacBook Pros every year! If you don't count all the adaptors you'd need.

  7. Re:Q: How many Austinites... by mattwarden · · Score: 4, Informative

    That's Amarillo. I've been to that steakhouse. Quite a spectacle

  8. News stories say that is true. More detail: by Futurepower(R) · · Score: 4, Informative

    News stories I've found indicate what you said is correct:

    Seattle: Together with abusive companies and bad city management, Seattle is a miserable place.

    Houses in Seattle are expensive: Seattle bumps Boston as the most expensive U.S. housing market that's not in California.

    Rent is expensive: Seattle rent is 5th most expensive in U.S.

    Traffic: Seattle one of the worst U.S. cities for traffic congestion, tied with NYC (March 31, 2015) Quote: "An additional 23 minutes a day spent in traffic may not sound like much, but when it adds up over a year it becomes 89 hours." (Whoever wrote that must be accustomed to Seattle misery. An additional 23 minutes a day spent in traffic sounds HORRIBLE.)

    Slow internet: Many areas of Seattle have poor internet connections. See the article, These places have the slowest Internet in the country. (June 25, 2015) Quote: "... Seattle ... CenturyLink (CTL) customers trying to access particular sites from 9 p.m. to 10 p.m. will have unbearably slow speeds."

    Microsoft: Microsoft Is Filled With Abusive Managers And Overworked Employees, Says Tell-All Book (May 23, 2012)

    Amazon: Worse than Wal-Mart: Amazon's sick brutality and secret history of ruthlessly intimidating workers (February 23, 2014)

    Amazon: Inside Amazon: Wrestling Big Ideas in a Bruising Workplace (August 15, 2015) Quote: "The company is conducting an experiment in how far it can push white-collar workers..."

    Amazon: Amazon Under Fire Over Alleged Worker Abuse in Germany (February 19, 2013)