$100k salary, packing up from Tucson

change
Pittsburgh, PA cityscape

swapping out of tucson

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

$76

more each month than Tucson ran you

A small premium for Pittsburgh. Worth it only if the rest of the city earns it back.
landable, recorded on the pittsburgh entry

02 · the money

a quick ledger.

01rent

$1,473/mo

2% more expensive than Tucson(vs $1,444/mo)

02state income tax

3.07%

$48/mo more in state tax than Tucson

vs 2.5% in Tucson

03after rent

$6,605/mo

$76 less than Tucson

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

04a house here

$223k

37% cheaper than Tucson

vs $352k in Tucson

05metro size

2.4M

vs 1.1M in Tucson

03 · the life

field notes, weather & such.

161

pleasant days a year, in pittsburgh.

Tucson has the edge here, logging 202 pleasant days a year. Cold snaps are part of the year: 28 days below 20° here, 0 in Tucson.

139% more happening than in Tucson.
on a typical month
·outdoorscore

69/100

5% higher than Tucson

vs 66/100 in Tucson

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

·walk score®

99/100

48% higher than Tucson

vs 67/100 in Tucson

Walk Score® methodology

·nonstops

37

131% more than Tucson

vs 16 nonstops in Tucson

04 · see also

same energy as pittsburgh, different zip code:

compare pittsburgh with: