on $100k a year, leaving Los Angeles

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Pittsburgh, PA cityscape

next stop after los angeles

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

$1,946

lighter monthly cost than Los Angeles

In Pittsburgh, rent stops being the headline. The cost gap shows up every month without you trying.
landable, recorded on the pittsburgh entry

02 · the money

a quick ledger.

01rent

$1,473/mo

49% cheaper than Los Angeles(vs $2,899/mo)

02state income tax

3.07%

$519/mo less in state tax than Los Angeles

vs 9.3% in Los Angeles

03after rent

$6,605/mo

$1,946 more than Los Angeles

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

04a house here

$223k

78% cheaper than Los Angeles

vs $1029k in Los Angeles

05metro size

2.4M

vs 12.8M in Los Angeles

03 · the life

field notes, weather & such.

161

pleasant days a year, in pittsburgh.

Los Angeles gets 283 pleasant days a year, so you'd be trading some sunshine. Winter has bite, though: 28 days drop below 20° vs Los Angeles's 0.

77% fewer events than Los Angeles. The pace eases up.
on a typical month
·outdoorscore

69/100

3% higher than Los Angeles

vs 67/100 in Los Angeles

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

·walk score®

99/100

3% higher than Los Angeles

vs 96/100 in Los Angeles

Walk Score® methodology

·nonstops

37

75% fewer than Los Angeles

vs 150 nonstops in Los Angeles

04 · see also

same energy as pittsburgh, different zip code:

compare pittsburgh with: