In St. Louis:
1 - a decent 1 BR runs $400 to $900 depending on area ... i.e. South City vs. Central West End. (A 1 BR loft downtown goes for $630 if you make less than 26K. My 1 BR goes for $375, its 3 rooms, decorative fireplace, hw floors.)

2 - a starter home can be from $85K (city) to $150K (county)

3 - 35K is my best bet for avg. salary in city

(IMO, its a fairly decent cost of living here and it all depends on how you look for it. Martinis run about $6 as do glasses of wine, dinners can run the gamut, but overall its pretty nice. In Chicago, I shelled out $625 for a studio apt. and could blow $6 on one beer)

Here in Appalacia.....
 

.....the cost of living is REALLY low, but it's a pretty poor area.

One bedroom--between $250 and $500. My place is $400.

Starter home--around 50K.

Average salary--I'm not too sure, but I'm guessing in the mid-20s.

I have no solid proof. Just something I've been told.

Re: Canadian estimates
 

My one bedroom in Downtown Ottawa cost me $625 - but it was a freaken closest.

There are statistics on incoming somewhere... probably the StatsCan pages... I saw them once - Oakville is the richest for income...

Where I am: I bedroom is about $500, and a starter house is about $150.

Re: Re: Canadian estimates
 

I thought Oakville is second now, with West Van in first place (I think it's West Van...it's somewhere in Vancouver, anyway)

My city in Iowa:

1 BR Apartment: $300-500 (mine was $385 and fairly decent-sized)
Starter home $80-120K (we bought ours for $90K but it's also 90 years old)
Average income: $44K according to that link

Denver prices run the gamut from very expensive lofts in LoDo to maybe $750 for a nice 2br in the burbs.

Starter home probably $100-120K.

Don't have time to check average income right now, sorry.

Here's DA's first law of "Cost of Living..."

"No matter how much you make...that's how much you will spend."

Colorado Springs is like that too... HUGE range of prices, depending on where you live

In Boston...

1. A 1br varies greatly by the area, but if you stay within the city & Cambridge/Brookline area you probably wouldn't find one under $1000, and the more upscale easily near/top $2k.

2. Forget homes. A starter condo in the city (1br) doesn't get much cheaper than $175k; they start at around $275k in the nicer areas.

3. Couldn't tell you what the average salary is, although I imagine it's significantly higher than the national average.

Re: Re: Canadian estimates
 

was this recently? 4-5 years ago rent prices were substantially cheaper.

The great thing about New York City is that there are many different neighborhoods with different price ranges. These are prices for neighborhoods in Manhattan in 2003.

Upper East Side: An average studio monthly rent is $1,700, while an average one-bedroom goes for $2,500.

Upper West Side: The average studio went for $1,800 in 2003 and a one-bedroom for $2,900

Midtown between 34th and 58th Streets: a one-bedroom rented for $2,600 and a studio rented for $1,800.

There are neighborhoods outside of Manhattan that are less expensive.

I don't know the price of the average starter home or average salary. I know people who have paid over $500,000 for a house in White Plains in Westchester.

One thing that surprized me in Manhattan is that often heat and water are included. That's probably because, at least in the pre-war buildings, they are still steam heat and it would be very difficult to pro-rate the total costs for the entire building. At least that's my guess.

I've seen houses not too dissimilar from mine listed at over $1M in White Plains. :eek:

Location, location, location!

Water, heat, and electric are included for me. Where I live we have to pay a small fee for the refrigerator depending on the size. I think it's $9 a month for a refrigerator over 16 cubic feet. We also have to pay an annual fee for the air conditioners. They keep threatening to submeter the co-op for electricity, but that hasn't happened yet.

Damn, and I bitch about my $350/month utilities included one bedroom (that my dad calls a college palace)

Of course I live in a rural college town where the only people who make real money are college professors/admin and bar owners...other then that everyone else is either college students, farmers, or unskilled labor: walmart, waitresses, etc with the occasionaly doctor and whatever else to keep the town running...

You can get a fairly decent starter home (possibly a little fixing involved as many houses around here are old) for $60K

Like I metioned there are pretty much 3 salaries, university employees & doctors, farmers, and unskilled labor...