$100k salary, packing up from Spokane

change
Pittsburgh, PA cityscape

instead of spokane

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

$208

the monthly cost of moving past Spokane

You'd pay for Pittsburgh. The question is whether the days are worth the difference.
landable, recorded on the pittsburgh entry

02 · the money

a quick ledger.

01rent

$1,473/mo

3% cheaper than Spokane(vs $1,520/mo)

02state income tax

3.07%

$256/mo more in state tax than Spokane

vs 0% in Spokane

03after rent

$6,605/mo

$208 less than Spokane

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

04a house here

$223k

47% cheaper than Spokane

vs $420k in Spokane

05metro size

2.4M

vs 600k in Spokane

03 · the life

field notes, weather & such.

161

pleasant days a year, in pittsburgh.

Spokane has the edge here, logging 164 pleasant days a year.

Nights and weekends fill up faster. 2.1× more on the calendar than Spokane.
on a typical month
·outdoorscore

69/100

15% lower than Spokane

vs 81/100 in Spokane

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

·walk score®

99/100

9% higher than Spokane

vs 91/100 in Spokane

Walk Score® methodology

·nonstops

37

270% more than Spokane

vs 10 nonstops in Spokane

04 · see also

in the same ballpark as pittsburgh:

compare pittsburgh with: