What is the COL where you live?

MommaP12 · August 2013

The salary poll below got me thinking about the COL where you are. I thought some people were in higher COL areas and after seeing their salaries I couldn't fathom getting by in a high COL area on X salary. Curious as to how many of are in High, Medium or Low cost of living areas. So what do you consider your area COL wise?

MommaP12 · August 2013

I voted HCOL since I'm in downtown Chicago. There's no way we could get by here on less than 6 figures plus combined income. Our gas is always the highest in the county - luckily we only have one car and only drive it to see family in the suburbs. Groceries are very expensive - I coupon big time. Don't even get me started on this crooked state/city and how ripped off we get!

KellersPrag · August 2013

High. Ugh.

It's very hard to make it even day to day, with my husband working 2 full time jobs and me working 60 hour weeks.

MommaP12 · August 2013

Our daycare for 2 kids going on MWF is more than our mortgage. As much as I don't want DS in Kindergarten because I sob at the thought, I am looking forward to paying half as much in daycare next year. :-SS

We are grounded here because we were born and raised here and ALL of both our families are within 40 miles of us and DH started a business based on a Chicago icon. So here we stay!

BPer · August 2013

We're in a suburb with mid-COL. We'll likely be here forever. H's business is here.

danabsd · August 2013

High. We call it the sunshine tax.

Stasi · August 2013

I want to know what people consider H/M/LCOL. Cost of 3/2 house, annual taxes/price of a quart of blueberries/daycare etc...

LyndseylovesHugh · August 2013

I grew up in the Bay Area, which is ridiculously high, so compared to that other places I have lived seem low. But in reality I think they are probably mid. We live in WA, kind of near olympia. Our rent for our 3 bedroom house is $1200/month. We have also lived in the Phoenix area and the Vegas area and own homes in both. Phx was more expensive than Vegas. In my mind Vegas is closer to a LCOL area. I paid $240,000 for my 2 bedroom, 950 sq foot condo in Scottsdale (Phoenix area) and we only paid $116,000 for our 3 bedroom 1500 sq foot house in Vegas. We rent both out and get about the same in rent from both ($1000/month).

Bighair12 · August 2013

I sm not sure if we are low or mid cost of living. I need some example costs to determine.

redneckmomma25 · August 2013

HCOL. NY. Land of the taxed. Gas is 3.80ish. Depends on county and how close to the city. I paid 3.95 today but yesterday when I was in a different county it was 3.69. Blueberries you can get on sale for 2.99 at the grocery store. Our property taxes are $7500/year on 4.6 acres and a $340k home. Our house is 2700sqft. 5 bedrooms. Finished basement. Two car garage. View of the Catskills mountains. Um. What else would tell you our col? I have no idea what day care prices are.

hmp1 · August 2013

I always consider where we live to be a lcol area, outside of Nashville, TN. I have never looked it up though. We don't pay income tax, our property tax is low, and the median home value is under $200k.

redneckmomma25 · August 2013

hmp1 said:
I always consider where we live to be a lcol area, outside of Nashville, TN. I have never looked it up though. We don't pay income tax, our property tax is low, and the median home value is under $200k.

Tn is one of my top contenders or states to live outside of Ny. I love it.

redneckmomma25 · August 2013

@mathlete I love Knoxville. Pigeon forge and gatlinberg.

some of my fondest vacations as a child.

JulesDiane · August 2013

We live in Atlanta. I voted mid. I think that seems right. Compared to NYC and Chicago, I might almost consider it low.

willy_gert · August 2013

If I had to guess I would say we live in a LCOL area. Daycare runs us $520 a month, our 3 bedroom 2 bath house cost us 99,900 to purchase. I just paid $3.35 for a gallon of gas. Milk cost me $2.99 a gallon.

I was jelly of your guys' salaries, but now I understand at least a little bit why mine is so much lower!

Bighair12 · August 2013

So gas here is almost 4 a gallon. Milk is 3.90 for organic half gallon. We pay over 4000 in taxes for a 240000 house that is 1700 square feet. We pay 800 a month for part time daycare. So I guess I will vote mid.

redneckmomma25 · August 2013

mathlete said:

redneckmomma25 said:

@mathlete I love Knoxville. Pigeon forge and gatlinberg. some of my fondest vacations as a child.

YES! We went to Gatlinburg for our honeymoon. Got a cabin for a week. It was awesome.

I never want to take G to Disney, but I would take her to dolly wood as much as she wanted.

bosha711 · August 2013

HCOL. In NNJ

freeatlast2014 · August 2013

HCOL in Northern NJ too.

My property taxes are $14k/y for a 1900 sq ft home on 1/3 of an acre.

Gas is 3.49/gallon (I think that's what I paid the other day)

elizabethwig · August 2013

HCOL in Vancouver, BC. Detached houses start around a million, pretty much only for the property
Crackshackormansion.com drives the point home pretty well.

1fish2fish · August 2013

We live in Northern Wilmington, DE but we both grew up/work in Philadelphia. Our property taxes are super low (under $1100/year for our 1700-ish square foot house) and Delaware has no shopping taxes. IDK, I guess we're mid-COL?

ellebee2 · August 2013

elizabethwig said:
HCOL in Vancouver, BC. Detached houses start around a million, pretty much only for the property
Crackshackormansion.com drives the point home pretty well.

I'm in Vancouver too. HCOL for sure.

We sold our 502 sq ft 1br/1ba (old bldg, no in-suite laundry) for just under $300,000 last year. Watching shows like House Hunters on HGTV makes me want to cry.

FT daycare is $1000-$1500/month depending where you are.

Don't get me started on gas.

TCMom78 · August 2013

It's similar in Boston to DC maybe-- daycare outside city is maybe 1500-1800/mo in a center, but 1700-2500 downtown. Our single family inside 128, at 2000 sqft is maybe 525k right now.

kelbel527 · August 2013

Medium? Maybe low. Milwaukee, wi. Much much lower than Chicago, but not as low as really small towns.

bosha711 · August 2013

elizabethwig said:

HCOL in Vancouver, BC. Detached houses start around a million, pretty much only for the property Crackshackormansion.com drives the point home pretty well.

omg, this site was funny but sad! I thought NJ real estate was overpriced. This site was ridiculous! Holy shit.

Stasi · August 2013

redneckmomma25 said:

HCOL. NY. Land of the taxed. Gas is 3.80ish. Depends on county and how close to the city. I paid 3.95 today but yesterday when I was in a different county it was 3.69. Blueberries you can get on sale for 2.99 at the grocery store. Our property taxes are $7500/year on 4.6 acres and a $340k home. Our house is 2700sqft. 5 bedrooms. Finished basement. Two car garage. View of the Catskills mountains. Um. What else would tell you our col? I have no idea what day care prices are.

I would consider $7500 property taxes MCOL. I pay that much for a town home with no acreage 40 miles west of Chicago. I also paid 10K more for my townhome. The rest sounds high though. Gas is 3.49 today. Child care is over $1200 a month. Edit: my townhome wasn't that much...misread

Flamingemu · August 2013

No doubt HCOL. DC Metro.

[Deleted User] · August 2013

High. $1000/month for 4 days of daycare a week. Ugh.

jbBeans · August 2013

When I see a house in our area of Toronto for under a million, I consider it a "good deal." Our neighbors just sold their 3 bedroom semi-detached for at least $850k. A total gut job crack house down the street was listed at $700k and sold within a week.

I struggle to stay within our $500/month food budget.

Daycare around here would probably be at least $1500/month.

But when we lived in Eastern Ontario, our gorgeous 3 bed house was $150k. We just couldn't find decent jobs.

[Deleted User] · August 2013

@jbbeans $500/month?! I try to stay under $250/month...

elizabethwig · August 2013

@jbbeans $500/month?! I try to stay under $250/month...

Yeah, I'd say we spend close to $500/month here too. Shit is expensive in Canada, yo

fireflygirl12 · August 2013

TheNetwork said:

I voted high. We live in Seattle. I love it here and wouldn't live anywhere else

@thenetwork - we are in Seattle too! Didn't know there were any others on here.

jbBeans · August 2013

BettyandCo said:
@jbbeans $500/month?! I try to stay under $250/month...

Yeah, insanity. That said, I cook just about every meal. We might eat out or order in about 2x per month. Breakfast, lunch and dinner are all me, so that's pat of it. But again, when we lived outside the city it was more affordable. It took about a year for me to find a grocery store I like here.

hmp1 · August 2013

ellebee2 said:

HCOL in Vancouver, BC. Detached houses start around a million, pretty much only for the property Crackshackormansion.com drives the point home pretty well.
I'm in Vancouver too. HCOL for sure. We sold our 502 sq ft 1br/1ba (old bldg, no in-suite laundry) for just under $300,000 last year. Watching shows like House Hunters on HGTV makes me want to cry. FT daycare is $1000-$1500/month depending where you are. Don't get me started on gas.

That is funny because we have the exact opposite reaction to House Hunters. We realize that we can never live anywhere else because we pay around $100 or less a sqft around here.

eshee8198 · August 2013

We're sort of SS, but I answered HCOL. We both work in the Boston Metro area, so that makes things expensive, but we live about 50 miles west, in a lower cost (but still relatively high, I think) of living area. For example, we pay $1100/month for daycare, but my friends who live where I work pay closer to $1800 - 2000/month on average. We bought our house and land for about $300K, but that wouldn't get you a condo where I work. Which is why we suffer through the commutes!

jenndub · August 2013

High. I'm in San Diego, happily paying my sunshine tax. I never want to leave even though it's ridiculously expensive to live here. I paid $4.05 for gas this morning.

Shazzie116 · August 2013

HCOL an hour outside NYC. Gas is currently around $4.09. $400K-500K will get you a 3br Cape in a good neighborhood.

We make ~$110K combined and our rent is $1650 for a 2br/2ba apartment close to our jobs. We could pay less if we moved further away, but our commute would go from 10 minutes to over an hour, one way, and I'm not willing to do that.

kbbgg · August 2013

I'm in Saskatchewan and we're in the middle of a boom. In the last five years rent and housing has doubled if not tripled. Food is somewhere in the middle, gas is verging on high and we paid 340k for our 1700sqf house and could sell tomorrow for close to 400k.
We were in the middle but with our city growing so fast shits getting real.
We have no laws regarding rent control and current rent available in my city is just under 1%. It's stupid.

jocymama · August 2013

I said MCOL but after reading what some of you pay I think we may be in the LCOL. A 4BD/3BA pretty nice house in the suburb with good schools would be b/w $250-$300K. Gas is right now at $3.39 in our area and I think I just paid $3.00 for a gallon of milk.

LuvSD · August 2013

bosha711 said:

elizabethwig said:

HCOL in Vancouver, BC. Detached houses start around a million, pretty much only for the property Crackshackormansion.com drives the point home pretty well.

omg, this site was funny but sad! I thought NJ real estate was overpriced. This site was ridiculous! Holy shit.

WTF!! Is that website for real? How the hell are those houses over a million bucks??

hmp1 · August 2013

LuvSD said:

bosha711 said:

elizabethwig said:

HCOL in Vancouver, BC. Detached houses start around a million, pretty much only for the property Crackshackormansion.com drives the point home pretty well.

omg, this site was funny but sad! I thought NJ real estate was overpriced. This site was ridiculous! Holy shit.

WTF!! Is that website for real? How the hell are those houses over a million bucks??

Ha, I was 11 for 16.

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