
See Which Cities Pay the Highest Software Engineering Salaries Adjusted for COL - pascalxus
https://skilldime.com/blog/see-which-cities-pay-the-highest-software-engineering-salaries-adjusted-for-col/
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jfim
The big issue with this kind of calculation is that it assumes each dollar has
the same marginal utility.

A much more useful calculation (and much harder) is how much money is left
over living expenses, and how much utility (or enjoyment) is derived from that
surplus. It might be nice to live in a low cost of living area, but if all the
entertainment options are not appealing, it's not really useful, even if the
options are cheap.

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ahpearce
Great point, and it's also not counting total comp, which I imagine is much
higher on average in California.

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a-priori
Which _American_ cities, they mean. There’s a whole world out there, folks.

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blaser-waffle
Reston, VA has has best salaries relative to COL? LOL.

Fairfax County, VA, is literally the 2nd richest county in the US; the #1
richest county is right next door. Traffic is heavy, and housing costs keep
goin up. Salaries are decent, esp. in the cleared government sector, though
civilian gigs are pretty lucrative too.

Don't get me wrong, you'll probably have a decent lifestyle there -- I think
about moving back occasionally -- but it's nothing like Omaha or Columbus.

Source: am from there, ran data centers in Reston, Herndon, and Ashburn.

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alexhutcheson
If you work in or around Reston itself, I think the situation is not so bad.
There are plenty of places in Loudoun County in the 25-40 min commute range
that are still relatively affordable, because they are too far away from
Tysons/Arlington/DC/etc. to be a reasonable commute. They're expensive, but
not nearly as expensive as a comparable commute would be in the NY, Boston, or
even Atlanta areas. Overall I think the "live in Loudoun, work in Reston" is a
comparatively good value compared to the other metro areas that have high
software engineer salaries.

On the other hand, _living_ in Reston/Herndon and commuting to Arlington or DC
is both extremely expensive and a guaranteed miserable commute. The Silver
Line will probably help when it opens, but it will still be a long train ride,
and you'll be at the mercy of WMATA.

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alexhutcheson
Using Zillow prices within cities is a flawed methodology, because it's
sensitive to how city boundaries are drawn, which varies a lot - sometimes
city boundaries only include their historic "downtown" core, while other
cities include suburbs and even exurbs outside the "urban" area. For an
example, compare the boundaries of Boston
([https://goo.gl/maps/8DCq5vc4vyMR8BVU8](https://goo.gl/maps/8DCq5vc4vyMR8BVU8))
with those of Jacksonville, FL
([https://goo.gl/maps/BA3sdH4X7iebiqpV9](https://goo.gl/maps/BA3sdH4X7iebiqpV9)).

Ideally, you'd prefer to compare housing prices within a fixed commuting time
of the job location. This is pretty hard, so an alternative would be to use
housing prices within the Metropolitan Statistical Area[1], but that's often
too coarse.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan_statistical_area](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan_statistical_area)

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non-entity
> If you want to have your cake and eat it too, go to Columbus. 130K in a city
> with super low COL! And its mostly thanks to 1 company: Root Insurance
> Company, which seems to be paying out some seriously high salaries.

So basically, you probably wont be getting 130k in Columbus unless you get
into that company?

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vonseel
I had no idea that so many of these places besides CA/NYC are so much more
expensive per sq ft average than Texas cities. Denver is quite a bit more
expensive, for example, and Reston, VA, which I assume to be a nearby area to
DC, is also up there.

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ohnocentral
I've not visited most of the top 10 on this list, but I wonder if what you
trade for COL improvements makes up for the experience of living in those
locations. (A complex question if you factor in commute times, community
factors and personal interests at a minimum.)

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lemm
It seems like the sweet spot is around the middle of the list - places like
Dallas, Atlanta, Denver, Salt Lake City, etc. Good salaries and lower cost of
living than California, but you will have all the quality of life features of
a bigger city. I guess that's why those middle-tier cities on this list are
also at the top of the fastest growing places in the country.

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mesozoic
This is good however I want to take into account savings value also. So after
paying for a basic living I save the rest. Eventually I move to a very low COL
place so If the rest is much more I'm better off.

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dmode
How many of these weird cost of living calculators need to be made ?

