same $100k income, fresh start from Charleston

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Pittsburgh, PA cityscape

from charleston

Pittsburgh

pa · metro 2.4M

photo: Jay Brand / pexels

a dispatch from

pittsburgh

PA

40.44°N

80.00°W

Pittsburgh has more bridges than Venice (446, and locals will tell you the exact number), three rivers crashing together downtown, and a sandwich tradition where the fries go inside. The mills are long gone but the neighborhoods they built (Polish Hill, Bloomfield, the Strip) still feed you like a great aunt. Carnegie Mellon and UPMC turned the old industrial bones into a robotics and medical research scene. The skyline reveal coming through the Fort Pitt Tunnel is the cheapest awe in America.

metro2.4M

01 · the verdict

the verdict

$800

cheaper each month than Charleston

Pittsburgh is the kind of cheap that changes the math. Same salary, a different life on the other side.
landable, recorded on the pittsburgh entry

02 · the money

a quick ledger.

01rent

$1,473/mo

26% cheaper than Charleston(vs $1,987/mo)

02state income tax

3.07%

$286/mo less in state tax than Charleston

vs 6.5% in Charleston

03after rent

$6,605/mo

$800 more than Charleston

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

04a house here

$223k

48% cheaper than Charleston

vs $432k in Charleston

05metro size

2.4M

vs 849k in Charleston

03 · the life

field notes, weather & such.

161

pleasant days a year, in pittsburgh.

Charleston has the edge here, logging 212 pleasant days a year. Cold snaps are part of the year: 28 days below 20° here, 0 in Charleston.

93% more happening than in Charleston.
on a typical month
·outdoorscore

69/100

3% higher than Charleston

vs 67/100 in Charleston

Closest outdoor draw: Raccoon Creek State Park, 21.4 mi.

·walk score®

99/100

8% higher than Charleston

vs 92/100 in Charleston

Walk Score® methodology

·nonstops

37

85% more than Charleston

vs 20 nonstops in Charleston

04 · see also

cities that play in pittsburgh's register:

compare pittsburgh with: