Reply to How many friends or family of yours have left the DC area recently due to the rising cost of living?

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Reply to "How many friends or family of yours have left the DC area recently due to the rising cost of living?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]There is one thing I don't understand about moving to a lower COL city.  If you move to a "lower" COL city, aren't you still paying same/more for cars, plane tickets, gas, groceries, taxes, refrigerators, movies, clothes?  Does the cheap real estate prices offset all that even with a lower salary?  
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1.  yes, the lower real estate prices make a huge difference.  We have a much nicer house (4k sf, architect designed, land) here and our mortgage is $1,100/month.  You can't rent a conveniently located studio for that in DC.

2. Food is cheaper here, generally speaking.  Farmer's market prices for terrific locally grown food, instead of rivaling Whole Foods in cost, are more like Aldi (cheaper than grocery stores).

3. plane tickets are more expensive, marginally but only by a bit -- we have a few discount airlines serving local airport

4. cars -- I don't know, I don't have expensive car taste but here, there seem to be more Subarus and fewer BMWs.

5. gas is cheaper -- last time I was in DC, by 60 cents per gallon.  That depends on state taxes on fuel though, won't be true everywhere.

6.  taxes are much less expensive for more here but that is location-dependent.

7. How often do you buy a refrigerator?  but I gather that is comparable.  Movies are slightly less expensive (a couple dollars) but I haven't been to a theatre movie in years.  Netflix is the same and affordable in either location.

8.  things like handymen/small project contracting are much less expensive.  I have a guy that can do basically anything for $35 an hour, I supply parts.  He's also reliable and will come right away when I have a problem.  I am sure these kinds of people are available in DC but I didn't have one there.  Also we have fewer rules which means reduced permitting costs.  I built a large barn on my property and didn't have to have any kind of permit at all.

9.  DAYCARE FEES!  we have awesome child care facilities run by Early Ed centers in our university and it is, full-pay, $1200/month.  My friends in DC can't find anything halfway professional and reliable for under $2k a month.

Sports/activities/camps are also cheaper here.

The salary is not that much lower for the same job -- 10-15k.  We save that much just on the mortgage.

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