$100k salary, packing up from New Orleans

change
Pittsburgh, PA cityscape

instead of new orleans

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

$134

less monthly outlay than New Orleans

Cost barely budges between Pittsburgh and New Orleans. Pick this one for the texture of the days, not the math.
landable, recorded on the pittsburgh entry

02 · the money

a quick ledger.

01rent

$1,473/mo

9% cheaper than New Orleans(vs $1,612/mo)

02state income tax

3.07%

$6/mo more in state tax than New Orleans

vs 3% in New Orleans

03after rent

$6,605/mo

$134 more than New Orleans

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

04a house here

$223k

14% cheaper than New Orleans

vs $259k in New Orleans

05metro size

2.4M

vs 962k in New Orleans

03 · the life

field notes, weather & such.

161

pleasant days a year, in pittsburgh.

New Orleans gets 235 pleasant days a year, so you'd be trading some sunshine. A real winter, not a brutal one: 28 days under 20°, vs 0 in New Orleans.

A similar weekend lineup to New Orleans.
on a typical month
·outdoorscore

69/100

25% higher than New Orleans

vs 55/100 in New Orleans

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

·walk score®

99/100

1% higher than New Orleans

vs 98/100 in New Orleans

Walk Score® methodology

·nonstops

37

5% fewer than New Orleans

vs 39 nonstops in New Orleans

04 · see also

cities that play in pittsburgh's register:

compare pittsburgh with: