01 · the cities
San Jose
San Jose is Silicon Valley's anchor city, much bigger than San Francisco by population, and culturally underrated because everyone drives through it on the way somewhere else. The Vietnamese food scene (especially in Little Saigon) is one of the best in the country. The weather is impossibly mild, the Santa Cruz Mountains rise to the west, and the tech money funds a genuinely excellent restaurant scene.
full dispatch→Eugene
Eugene is Track Town USA (Hayward Field is the spiritual home of American distance running), the University of Oregon, and a hippie-academic-outdoorsy culture that's been here since the '60s and isn't going anywhere. The Willamette and McKenzie rivers meet just outside town. Saturday Market downtown has been running for over 50 years. Coffee and craft beer are taken seriously. Misty in winter, glorious in summer.
full dispatch→02 · the money
Median rent
Median rent
$3,470/mo
$1,799/mo
$1,671/mo less than San Jose (93%)
Median home price
Median home price
$1.8M
$456k
$1.3M less than San Jose
State income tax
State income tax
9.3%
8.8%
Gross left after rent
Gross left after rent
$4,088/mo
$5,805/mo
Eugene has $1,717/mo more gross after rent at $100k
Gross left after rent reflects state income tax but not federal, based on $100k salary. Enter your salary to find your ideal city.
03 · the weather
Pleasant days/yr
Pleasant days/yr
283 days
206 days
77 fewer than San Jose
Extreme heat days
Extreme heat days
19 days
2 days
days above 95°F per year
Extreme cold days
Extreme cold days
0 days
1 days
days below 20°F per year
San Jose has 17 more days above 95°F each year than Eugene.
04 · the life
OutdoorScore
OutdoorScore
70 / 100
75 / 100
5.0 pts ahead of San Jose
Nonstop flights
Nonstop flights
29 routes
9 routes
20 fewer direct routes than San Jose
Metro size
Metro size
1.9M metro
381k metro
San Jose has 2.3x more events per month than Eugene.
the verdict
2
San Jose
categories won
6
Eugene
categories won
Eugene leads on money and wins overall.
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