$100k a year, no longer in Lancaster

change
Asheville, NC cityscape

if you left lancaster

Asheville

nc · metro 417k

a dispatch from

asheville

NC

35.58°N

82.55°W

Asheville is what happens when a mountain town and an art school have a baby and raise it on craft beer. Downtown packs more breweries per capita than almost anywhere in America, plus buskers on every corner and Art Deco buildings the Depression accidentally preserved (the city went broke before it could tear them down). The Biltmore, America's largest private home, looms on the edge of town like a stone-carved flex. Remote workers keep showing up, which is how you know.

metro417k

01 · the verdict

the verdict

$341

more each month than Lancaster ran you

Asheville costs meaningfully more. Whether it earns that back in the day-to-day is the actual question.
landable, recorded on the asheville entry

02 · the money

a quick ledger.

01rent

$1,738/mo

15% more expensive than Lancaster(vs $1,517/mo)

02state income tax

4.5%

$119/mo more in state tax than Lancaster

vs 3.07% in Lancaster

03after rent

$6,220/mo

$341 less than Lancaster

gross of federal tax. a comparison, not a paycheck.

04a house here

$430k

12% more expensive than Lancaster

vs $384k in Lancaster

05metro size

417k

vs 559k in Lancaster

03 · the life

field notes, weather & such.

201

pleasant days a year, in asheville.

Lancaster only manages 158 of those.

Nights and weekends fill up faster. 2.3× more on the calendar than Lancaster.
on a typical month
·outdoorscore

66/100

5% higher than Lancaster

vs 63/100 in Lancaster

Closest outdoor draw: Great Smoky Mountains National Park, 74.8 mi.

·walk score®

63/100

35% lower than Lancaster

vs 97/100 in Lancaster

Walk Score® methodology

·nonstops

8

700% more than Lancaster

vs 1 nonstops in Lancaster

04 · see also

neighbors of asheville on the map of tradeoffs:

compare asheville with: