4 ms·

> extremely low cost of living and a city/region that has more good restaurants and activities than might be expected That's what people said about Salt Lake C

by umvi 5y ago

> extremely low cost of living and a city/region that has more good restaurants and activities than might be expected That's what people said about Salt Lake City and Boise... until about 5 years ago. Cost of living has skyrocketed since 2017, housing alone has doubled in price. It doesn't take long for a low cost of living region to become high cost of living.

asdff 5y ago
Cost of living in Columbus is low if you are looking at it with Coastal city eyes. That being said, its still the most expensive city in Ohio. Houses in the hot neighborhoods people write articles about were hitting 700k 6 years ago. Rents in new apartments are like $1300 for a 1 bedroom.
- kesslern 5y ago
  > That being said, its still the most expensive city in Ohio. Yes, because it's the only major city that's growing. Cleveland, Cincinatti, Toledo, and Dayton are all losing population year-over-year while Columbus's grows.
  - asdff 5y ago
    Just remarking its not entirely cheap. You can move there and get a job that pays well, but you aren't alone, other people are going to have well paid jobs too and you will find the same competitive housing market for decent neighborhoods that you see in places like Portland or wherever. Especially when you consider how your full tax structure works it might not be as much of a deal over time as CA with prop 13 as your taxes will be reassessed every few years and if the market climbed, so did your tax bill. There's probably fewer opportunities to leg up your earned income to match in a place with less jobs and smaller network effects like Central Ohio than there is in major job centers with more options for lateral moves.
  - axxl 5y ago
    Cincinnati (double n, single t) is actually growing in population: https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2021/08/12/census-2020-cincinnati-officially-ends-70-years-population-loss/8105461002/ https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2021/08/12/census-2020...
- rmah 5y ago
  Is $1300/mo supposed to be high? I've seen parking spaces going for $600/mo where I live.
  - asdff 5y ago
    IMO thats high for ohio with the wages seen, considering you can find studios at that rate or 1br for a few hundred more in the LA area.
    - jeffbee 5y ago
      LA has by far the worst wages-to-rent ratio in the entire nation so I'm a bit skeptical of you claim here. Also note that the other post said a new apartment.
      - asdff 5y ago
        You are welcome to peruse craigslist and fact check my claim yourself. I do note the poster said new apartment, that poster was me. It is still surprising to me that for the money spent living in Columbus, you can live in LA. Even if the acommodations are a little bit older in the LA example, it's not like you are getting a multibedroom apartment for the price of a studio in LA or anything. Plus minimum wage is $15 in LA and $9.30 in Columbus and more skilled jobs go up from there accordingly (SWE in columbus make like 70-80k probably). Here's a studio clocking in under $1300 in LA in Koreatown, which would be very convenient if you worked in hollywood or downtown LA: https://losangeles.craigslist.org/lac/apa/d/los-angeles-studio-month-free-laundry/7436822683.html https://losangeles.craigslist.org/lac/apa/d/los-angeles-stud... Apartments.com says theres like hundreds of studios available at this price range across LA: https://www.apartments.com/los-angeles-ca/under-1300/ https://www.apartments.com/los-angeles-ca/under-1300/
      - mNovak 5y ago
        And in a very favorable neighborhood. You can get much cheaper rent in an "up and coming" neighborhood.
  - Woden501 5y ago
- 908B64B197 5y ago
  I don't get why cost of living is factored at all. The biggest expense is typically housing. And if you bought the house, it means the biggest expense is... building equity into an asset you can sell afterward. Keep in mind the engineer who purchased a 2 million house in Palo Alto can sell it for two million, and then move to Ohio to a much cheaper house purchased in cash. The reverse isn't true.
  - asdff 5y ago
    You also pay taxes. But you are right that for the first movers it will be an easy transition into living opulantly in Ohio. The same can't be said for the next generation of workers, who graduate and have no capital accrued from working at bay area rates, and start their careers working for these Ohio based employers at Ohio based salary rates, and since Columbus is experiencing the same lack of supply issue everywhere growing faces, this generation are going to find a cutthroat market for them like the current generation of engineers fleeing 2 million dollar homes in Palo Alto.
    - gonehome 5y ago
      As long as the market is allowed to build housing to meet demand it's not too bad. Main issue in Palo Alto (and to a large extent the rest of the bay area) is that there's massive population growth in the bay area, but very little housing is allowed to be built. This creates artificial scarcity and the people that bought houses 30yrs ago accrue massive wealth because of it at the expense of new people (and the new people that manage to buy at exorbitant rates also end up paying the majority share of taxes too). This is the natural incentive made worse by things like locked property taxes and rent control. You really need legislation that allows the market to build (easier said than done).
      - to11mtm 5y ago
        The (build) supply side of the housing market is complicated. Remember that even when you aren't hampered by lack of space and/or zoning, most build starts are still 'investments'. I knew a whole lot of folks who did homebuilding in the first decade of the century. Housing starts were all over the place, partially because the investors were sure that with prices rising, it was a sure thing, right? But then the market glut happened. Housing starts stopped. All of those folks left homebuilding and few if any ever went back to it. I think nowadays Investors are back to preferring smaller buildouts, potentially in more phases. The supply/labor issues from covid haven't helped things lately though.
Manuel_D 5y ago
Cost of living is relative. San Francisco is about 50% more expensive than Seattle. Which in turn is about 70% higher than SLC, judging by a quick scan of apartment rents.
TaylorAlexander 5y ago
Sounds like a great time to buy land in Ohio... and get rich off the backs of people actually working there as speculators raise land prices.

by umvi 5y ago

asdff 5y ago

Cost of living in Columbus is low if you are looking at it with Coastal city eyes. That being said, its still the most expensive city in Ohio. Houses in the hot neighborhoods people write articles about were hitting 700k 6 years ago. Rents in new apartments are like $1300 for a 1 bedroom.

kesslern 5y ago
> That being said, its still the most expensive city in Ohio. Yes, because it's the only major city that's growing. Cleveland, Cincinatti, Toledo, and Dayton are all losing population year-over-year while Columbus's grows.
- asdff 5y ago
  Just remarking its not entirely cheap. You can move there and get a job that pays well, but you aren't alone, other people are going to have well paid jobs too and you will find the same competitive housing market for decent neighborhoods that you see in places like Portland or wherever. Especially when you consider how your full tax structure works it might not be as much of a deal over time as CA with prop 13 as your taxes will be reassessed every few years and if the market climbed, so did your tax bill. There's probably fewer opportunities to leg up your earned income to match in a place with less jobs and smaller network effects like Central Ohio than there is in major job centers with more options for lateral moves.
- axxl 5y ago
  Cincinnati (double n, single t) is actually growing in population: https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2021/08/12/census-2020-cincinnati-officially-ends-70-years-population-loss/8105461002/ https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2021/08/12/census-2020...
rmah 5y ago
Is $1300/mo supposed to be high? I've seen parking spaces going for $600/mo where I live.
- asdff 5y ago
  IMO thats high for ohio with the wages seen, considering you can find studios at that rate or 1br for a few hundred more in the LA area.
  - jeffbee 5y ago
    LA has by far the worst wages-to-rent ratio in the entire nation so I'm a bit skeptical of you claim here. Also note that the other post said a new apartment.
    - asdff 5y ago
      You are welcome to peruse craigslist and fact check my claim yourself. I do note the poster said new apartment, that poster was me. It is still surprising to me that for the money spent living in Columbus, you can live in LA. Even if the acommodations are a little bit older in the LA example, it's not like you are getting a multibedroom apartment for the price of a studio in LA or anything. Plus minimum wage is $15 in LA and $9.30 in Columbus and more skilled jobs go up from there accordingly (SWE in columbus make like 70-80k probably). Here's a studio clocking in under $1300 in LA in Koreatown, which would be very convenient if you worked in hollywood or downtown LA: https://losangeles.craigslist.org/lac/apa/d/los-angeles-studio-month-free-laundry/7436822683.html https://losangeles.craigslist.org/lac/apa/d/los-angeles-stud... Apartments.com says theres like hundreds of studios available at this price range across LA: https://www.apartments.com/los-angeles-ca/under-1300/ https://www.apartments.com/los-angeles-ca/under-1300/
    - mNovak 5y ago
      And in a very favorable neighborhood. You can get much cheaper rent in an "up and coming" neighborhood.
- Woden501 5y ago
908B64B197 5y ago
I don't get why cost of living is factored at all. The biggest expense is typically housing. And if you bought the house, it means the biggest expense is... building equity into an asset you can sell afterward. Keep in mind the engineer who purchased a 2 million house in Palo Alto can sell it for two million, and then move to Ohio to a much cheaper house purchased in cash. The reverse isn't true.
- asdff 5y ago
  You also pay taxes. But you are right that for the first movers it will be an easy transition into living opulantly in Ohio. The same can't be said for the next generation of workers, who graduate and have no capital accrued from working at bay area rates, and start their careers working for these Ohio based employers at Ohio based salary rates, and since Columbus is experiencing the same lack of supply issue everywhere growing faces, this generation are going to find a cutthroat market for them like the current generation of engineers fleeing 2 million dollar homes in Palo Alto.
  - gonehome 5y ago
    As long as the market is allowed to build housing to meet demand it's not too bad. Main issue in Palo Alto (and to a large extent the rest of the bay area) is that there's massive population growth in the bay area, but very little housing is allowed to be built. This creates artificial scarcity and the people that bought houses 30yrs ago accrue massive wealth because of it at the expense of new people (and the new people that manage to buy at exorbitant rates also end up paying the majority share of taxes too). This is the natural incentive made worse by things like locked property taxes and rent control. You really need legislation that allows the market to build (easier said than done).
    - to11mtm 5y ago
      The (build) supply side of the housing market is complicated. Remember that even when you aren't hampered by lack of space and/or zoning, most build starts are still 'investments'. I knew a whole lot of folks who did homebuilding in the first decade of the century. Housing starts were all over the place, partially because the investors were sure that with prices rising, it was a sure thing, right? But then the market glut happened. Housing starts stopped. All of those folks left homebuilding and few if any ever went back to it. I think nowadays Investors are back to preferring smaller buildouts, potentially in more phases. The supply/labor issues from covid haven't helped things lately though.

Manuel_D 5y ago

Cost of living is relative. San Francisco is about 50% more expensive than Seattle. Which in turn is about 70% higher than SLC, judging by a quick scan of apartment rents.

TaylorAlexander 5y ago

Sounds like a great time to buy land in Ohio... and get rich off the backs of people actually working there as speculators raise land prices.