same $100k income, fresh start from Phoenix

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Pittsburgh, PA cityscape

next stop after phoenix

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

$219

cheaper each month than Phoenix

Not a fortune, but real money. Pittsburgh runs cheaper than Phoenix month over month.
landable, recorded on the pittsburgh entry

02 · the money

a quick ledger.

01rent

$1,473/mo

15% cheaper than Phoenix(vs $1,739/mo)

02state income tax

3.07%

$48/mo more in state tax than Phoenix

vs 2.5% in Phoenix

03after rent

$6,605/mo

$219 more than Phoenix

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

04a house here

$223k

51% cheaper than Phoenix

vs $458k in Phoenix

05metro size

2.4M

vs 5.1M in Phoenix

03 · the life

field notes, weather & such.

161

pleasant days a year, in pittsburgh.

Phoenix gets 181 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 Phoenix.

Lighter on events: Phoenix packs 2.5× more into a month.
on a typical month
·outdoorscore

69/100

5% higher than Phoenix

vs 66/100 in Phoenix

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

·walk score®

99/100

2% higher than Phoenix

vs 97/100 in Phoenix

Walk Score® methodology

·nonstops

37

59% fewer than Phoenix

vs 91 nonstops in Phoenix

04 · see also

in the same ballpark as pittsburgh:

compare pittsburgh with: