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Comment by msluyter | Hacker News Reader

I'm curious if you have any evidence to back up your assertion that high end restaurants are calculated in the averages?

In any event, this generates a more detailed breakdown:

http://www.bankrate.com/calculators/savings/moving-cost-of-l...

A few interesting examples (I chose to compare to Brooklyn, since Manhattan was over the top ridiculous):

  -             Austin         Brooklyn
  Home Price    $232,059.83    $944,473.13	
  Rent          $926.30        $2,249.13
  Doctor Visit  $84.28         $105.09
  Pizza         $10.08         $11.33	
  Beer          $8.43          $9.81
  Ground Beef   $2.54          $3.39

Etc...

Weirdly, optometrists are way cheaper there (94$ vs 56$). Hmm... I'm going to have to co-ordinate my checkups with my vacations...

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I've moved around a fair bit to a number of different cities, and IMHO these "cost of living comparison" reports are mostly bullshit.

One might be able to make some good comparisons about rent, since that's so heavily market-driven... but groceries? I find that the price of groceries varies so widely across any city, or hell, any neighborhood that one cannot possibly make a reasonable claim to "a bottle of beer costs $X", nor "a delivered pizza costs $Y".

Take where I'm right now for example - your link has the broad area "Seattle-Bellevue-Everett" - which covers every single neighborhood in Seattle, from the cheapest in the Central District all the way to the most expensive in Belltown. And then it moves north to heavily blue-collar areas like Everett and software-engineer-land like Bellevue.

How can any reasonable pricing index be established like that?

You got me. My evidence is anecdotal. But still...

I own a 2 bedroom in Brooklyn (1200sqft) with view of the Ocean that's that is less expensive that the number on the top right by 150K$. I definitely think my place is "above average", so these numbers must be skewed by my neighbors that paid 2.7MM$ for an apartment the same size because it had a gold-plated ceiling (Russian Neighborhood).

I look at my tax deductions each month in the UK and sometimes feel like weeping, then I see figures such as 'Doctor Visit ~$95' and take for granted not having to pay for healthcare.

Just out of curiosity, was that $8/9 for a pint/litre of beer or a 4 pack. When I was in NYC last year I don't recall it being anywhere near that expensive.

I'm guessing that's a 6-pack.

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