Everyone says HCOL is Cali, NY. What about WA, NJ - are they considered as MCOL? How’s the quality of life in Cali, NY, Texas ( Austin ) 1) In WA, A single bedroom apartment ( 650 square feet ) is around 2500 in a luxurious apartment ( best amenities + in house washer and dryer ). You drive to relax your mind, excluding Seattle if you stay in Bellevue or Redmond, you have really good quality of life - clean roads, homeless people are not allowed, safer localities, natural beauty, no state tax, only big minus is the crappy climate - rains for more than 6 months. 2) In NJ, specially if you stay anywhere near NJ-NYC border, the quality of life is super bad. You pay 2500-3000 for 600-700 square feet with minimal amenities, no dryer or washer in the apartment. The farther you go from NYC, the cheaper and better the apartments and amenities you get in NJ like 2300-2500 for 600-700 sq feet in a luxurious apartment ( gym, dog parks, swimming pool, in house washer & dryer, etc ). The moment you start driving you get irritated in most places in NJ, crappy roads, shady localities - you don’t feel safe after 6-7pm in many places, and you pay 5-6% state tax. TC - 270k
We need to start putting NYC and SF/LA as VHCOL because Seattle and Bellevue should be considered HCOL when compared to all the MCOL places
High cholesterol, middle cholesterol and low cholesterol.
There's no standard. One of my previous company considers both LA and Miami Mcol. Rent is 2.5k+ in both.
There needs to be a COL.FYI to take away stress of what is HCOL/MCOL/LCOL 😀
No, it doesn't rain more than 6 months out of the year in Seattle, but whatever... not sure we're even in the top 20 big cities with the most rainfall
referring to seattle/bellevue/kirkland, I dont think home (purchase) cost is medium cost versus the rest of the big cities in the US. Nor are rental costs. not sure about other expenses.
Side note: it doesn't rain 6 months a year in Seattle, we just have more cloud cover. It actually rains more in NY per year than Seattle. Ref: https://www.bestplaces.net/climate/?c1=55363000&c2=53651000
From my experience living in both, East coast is shorter duration bursts of harder rain (that’s probably why the total amount of rainfall is greater) with a few months of increased frequency, whereas Seattle is more like a constant light drizzle that goes on and off for 6+ months of the year. Pros and cons for both styles of rain I guess
Austin is bad, my mediocre 680 sq ft apartment is $2100. And I don’t even live downtown. Not as bad as NY or Cali but it’s getting there
Here's how Square defines it https://careers.smartrecruiters.com/Square/us-zones
SF and NYC are called VHCOL. Seattle is HCOL. MCOL is Atlanta, Houston. Indianapolis. LCOL is Alabama Arkansas.
Sweet home Alabama