Where People Spend the Least On Housing + Transportation

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As a Miami native, that tiny little comment about San Jose having basically the same median rental as Miami while having double the median income destroyed me.

As a Bay Area tech worker (I hear your snark already), I've found that many tech companies will subsidize your transportation costs if you take public transit, making your transportation costs basically 0. I haven't driven to work since moving out here 9 years ago and only use public transit. So yes, it is the rich getting richer. As another YouTuber once said, at the end of the day, you'll have more dollars in your bank account living in a place like San Francisco than in another city. This video confirms that.

I moved to Tucson 2 years ago and was supprised, anicdotally, how dangerous the driving was here. I used to live in Buffalo so I did a little research. Accordingly to my research, in 2021 in Buffalo there were 25 car related deaths. And in 2021 in Tucson there were 80 car related deaths. Could you do an episode on the most dangerous cities in connection to car related deaths?

We need to normalize a simple lifestyle and stop normalizing debt. Huge SUVs, huge houses and private universities are simply not necessary. I live within my budget and I sleep better at night knowing that if I lose my job tomorrow, ' be fine. I didn't buy the biggest house. I bought the one I could comfortably repay

It'd be cool to see these same videos, but using the lower quartile instead of the median for the household income, rent, and car ownership. I'd like to see which cities are the best/worst to struggle in.

As someone that lives in SF I do have to say that the findings here ring true. It is totally the case that you need to be making around the median for this city to work for you (which is something that absolutely needs to be fixed), but IF you can secure that income, then there is a lot to love. I'm living car free for the first time in my life and I'm loving every minute of it. Between that major pay raise I got when moving here and the reduced transit costs, living in SF is a major win for me. Unfortunately this is not the case for everyone in SF and obviously housing issues need to change in the city, but it's not the hellscape that the media says it is.

Happy to see Portland, Oregon on this list. I was there in October and will confirm that it is not a “smoking crater.” In fact some stores/shops are reopening downtown which is great to see.

Rent in Kitsap, but work in Seattle. Job includes an Orca card, which covers fast ferry. As a San Jose native, and long time resident of Anchorage, the cost of living here is very agreeable, and I’m currently car free, barring the occasional rental.

This series could easily be called why do you feel poor (or rich)? Reminds me of one of my Parent's friends. He did the same job as my mom (stable white collar on the lower end of the of "white collar pay"). He drove junky old cars and lived in a trailer. When he died in his 40's he was worth over $300K, had he lived to my parents age he would have had a net worth in the millions (or close to it). Granted he never had kids, but he also never married.

I lived in Tacoma straight out of college and the cost of living was a huge factor. We are now considering moving close to Minneapolis to be closer to family and again the cost of living is a big factor. I grew up just south of San Jose and was definitely surprised to see it on the list. Not being in the tech industry is a huge factor for this place being unaffordable to me.

Hands down this is the most useful/informative video you've ever made. Kudos! As a resident of the DC area, this completely changed my mindset about how "expensive" it really is to live here. What I found most interesting was that many of the places you've touted in other recent videos: Pittsburgh, Cleveland, St. Louis, etc. were nowhere to be found. Unless someone is retired or independently wealthy, the costs for housing + transportation (a critical combination) are only a value metric relative to income. I also thought your point at the end about different values systems was very important. One size fits all doesn't work for everyone. I do think this would be an interesting metric looking after cost of purchasing housing, which would be much more skewed towards single-family and townhomes. Maybe throw in child care costs...

Seattle has done a far better job than other coastal cities at building lots of apartments. It shows up here!

Haha! I live just outside Seattle. It’s a place where if you lucked out with employment and buying a house pre-pandemic or before the boom, you’re good. We also have a spectacularly high amount of unhoused people because if you can only make minimum wage and/or have bad credit, you will not be able to afford any housing. Add to that that the weather mostly won’t kill you and you have the right combination to make it great for the rich and unbelievably desperate for the poor.

Happy to live in a top 10 region (Twin Cities). It's quite underrated here due to our December through February weather. Makes sense, honestly. There are times I wish I lived somewhere I could ride my motorcycle all year... But, outside of that criteria, the rest is a no-brainer to stay.

The math in these videos might be a little tough to comprehend at first but if you just do the math it comes to you. Increasing your income is so much more valuable to an individual vs trying to be as frugal as possible. A person who makes $5k/month, and spends $2k/month on housing + transport saves less than someone who makes $10k/month (2x income) and spends $6k/month on housing/transport (3x expenses) even though from a percentage standpoint, you are now spending 60% of income instead of 40%, you still are saving $4k instead of $3k.

I usually agree with your methodology, but the only thing these stats really tell you is "who" the median resident actually is. take NYC vs SF, median incomes 75k vs 130k... does SF have twice the "economic opportunity?" or are there just 5x as many software engineers in the dataset because it's been more successfully gentrified?

I’m a DC metro area native and have found it hard to leave. Great job market, affordable suburbs (when I bought my condo), decent (if poorly managed) public transit, and all the cultural opportunities living in a city brings.

I think to me the interesting data point wouldn't be the median household but maybe the twentieth percentile. Are lower-income people being served well by their city or are they being pushed out?

I love this channel so much. The way I just guffawed at “don’t know what median is, allow me to suggest this website” 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂