$100k a year, no longer in Houston

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Pittsburgh, PA cityscape

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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

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01 · the verdict

the verdict

$118

more each month than Houston ran you

Barely costlier than Houston. If Pittsburgh pulls you in, it's the life it offers, not the price tag.
landable, recorded on the pittsburgh entry

02 · the money

a quick ledger.

01rent

$1,473/mo

9% cheaper than Houston(vs $1,610/mo)

02state income tax

3.07%

$256/mo more in state tax than Houston

vs 0% in Houston

03after rent

$6,605/mo

$118 less than Houston

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

04a house here

$223k

28% cheaper than Houston

vs $311k in Houston

05metro size

2.4M

vs 7.5M in Houston

03 · the life

field notes, weather & such.

161

pleasant days a year, in pittsburgh.

Houston gets 171 pleasant days a year, so you'd be trading some sunshine. Winter has bite, though: 28 days drop below 20° vs Houston's 1.

But the calendar thins out: Houston stays 2.7× busier.
on a typical month
·outdoorscore

69/100

25% higher than Houston

vs 55/100 in Houston

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

·walk score®

99/100

29% higher than Houston

vs 77/100 in Houston

Walk Score® methodology

·nonstops

37

79% fewer than Houston

vs 176 nonstops in Houston

04 · see also

in the same ballpark as pittsburgh:

see also

cincinnati

more flight options

turn the page

see also

cleveland

more flight options

turn the page

see also

buffalo

more things to do

turn the page

compare pittsburgh with:

CincinnatiClevelandBuffalo