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  #1  
Old Posted Aug 1, 2022, 7:33 PM
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US & Canadian Cities by Purchasing Power: Houston, Dallas & Ann Arbor are Top 3

Generally speaking, Purchasing Power refers to the disposable income (i.e. income after taxes and social contributions, including received transfer payments) of a certain region's population.

It looks like New York is the benchmark for this ranking.

US & Canadian Cities Ranked by Purchasing Power
1 Houston, TX, United States 172.98
2 Dallas, TX, United States 170.66
3 Ann Arbor, MI, United States 159.99
4 Austin, TX, United States 158.21
5 San Jose, CA, United States 157.39
6 Fremont, CA, United States 157.35
7 Jersey City, NJ, United States 155.89
8 Santa Clara, CA, United States 155.41
9 Columbus, OH, United States 151.29
10 Seattle, WA, United States 145.39
11 Charlotte, NC, United States 144.88
12 Jacksonville, FL, United States 144.30
13 Raleigh, NC, United States 144.12
14 Salt Lake City, UT, United States 140.61
15 San Antonio, TX, United States 137.67
16 Colorado Springs, CO, United States 137.64
17 Baltimore, MD, United States 136.13
18 Phoenix, AZ, United States 135.94
19 Chicago, IL, United States 135.26
20 San Francisco, CA, United States 133.16
21 Madison, WI, United States 132.13
22 Tulsa, OK, United States 132.05
23 Little Rock, AR, United States 131.07
24 Richmond, VA, United States 130.94
25 Atlanta, GA, United States 130.67
26 Denver, CO, United States 129.98
27 Albany, NY, United States 129.75
28 Oklahoma City, OK, United States 127.95
29 San Diego, CA, United States 127.94
30 Kansas City, MO, United States 127.20
31 Los Angeles, CA, United States 126.12
32 Vancouver, WA, United States 126.09
33 Cleveland, OH, United States 125.32
34 Cincinnati, OH, United States 125.17
35 Las Vegas, NV, United States 124.83
36 Buffalo, NY, United States 124.36
37 Red Deer, Canada 123.94
38 Orlando, FL, United States 123.32
39 Saint Louis, MO, United States 123.20
40 Albuquerque, NM, United States 122.44
41 Washington, DC, United States 121.83
42 Indianapolis, IN, United States 121.53
43 Charleston, SC, United States 121.26
44 Wichita, KS, United States 119.24
45 El Paso, TX, United States 118.77
46 Anchorage, AK, United States 118.63
47 Fresno, CA, United States 116.40
48 Boston, MA, United States 115.72
49 Philadelphia, PA, United States 115.61
50 Pittsburgh, PA, United States 115.50
51 Minneapolis, MN, United States 114.68
52 Calgary, Canada 114.16
53 Fort Worth, TX, United States 112.62
54 Spokane, WA, United States 112.36
55 Oakland, CA, United States 111.73
56 Nashville, TN, United States 111.46
57 Detroit, MI, United States 110.05
58 North Vancouver, Canada 110.05
59 Long Beach, CA, United States 110.03
60 Memphis, TN, United States 109.95
61 Louisville, KY, United States 109.65
62 Edmonton, Canada 109.54
63 Milwaukee, WI, United States 109.19
64 Olympia, WA, United States 108.83
65 Markham, Canada 108.69
66 Des Moines, IA, United States 108.35
67 Portland, OR, United States 108.09
68 Saint Paul, MN, United States 106.63
69 Omaha, NE, United States 106.03
70 Queens, NY, United States 105.72
71 Plano, TX, United States 105.41
72 Durham, NC, United States 104.76
73 Regina, Canada 104.02
74 Brampton, Canada 103.49
75 Mesa, AZ, United States 103.42
76 Akron, OH, United States 102.89
77 Lexington, KY, United States 102.40
78 Everett, WA, United States 101.79
79 Winnipeg, Canada 101.59
80 Sacramento, CA, United States 101.43
81 Fort Lauderdale, FL, United States 101.32
82 Toronto, Canada 101.29
83 London, Canada 100.36
84 Fort Collins, CO, United States 100.34
85 Rochester, NY, United States 100.12

86 New York, NY, United States 100.00

87 Mississauga, Canada 99.70
88 Tampa, FL, United States 98.28
89 Surrey, Canada 98.13
90 Reno, NV, United States 96.91
91 Ottawa, Canada 94.30
92 Asheville, NC, United States 94.16
93 Santa Barbara, CA, United States 93.86
94 Miami, FL, United States 93.71
95 New Orleans, LA, United States 92.88
96 Greensboro, NC, United States 92.73
97 Chattanooga, TN, United States 91.70
98 Toledo, OH, United States 90.45
99 Montreal, Canada 89.93
100 Honolulu, HI, United States 89.24
101 Salem, OR, United States 89.20
102 Victoria, Canada 89.12
103 Eugene, OR, United States 88.21
104 Saskatoon, Canada 88.18
105 Halifax, Canada 87.92
106 Vancouver, Canada 87.68
107 Quebec City, Canada 87.22
108 Hamilton, Canada 86.35
109 Berkeley, CA, United States 85.78
110 Iowa City, IA, United States 85.03
111 Birmingham, AL, United States 84.93
112 Tucson, AZ, United States 83.69
113 Boise, ID, United States 82.63
114 Guelph, Canada 79.64
115 Hamilton, Bermuda 79.43
116 Dayton, OH, United States 79.21
117 Syracuse, NY, United States 78.44
118 Kelowna, Canada 77.45
119 Kingston, Canada 75.42
120 Kitchener, Canada 73.85
121 St.Catharines, Canada 71.18
122 St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada 62.75
123 Windsor, Canada 58.02
124 Nanaimo, BC, Canada 57.49

https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-livin...isplayColumn=5
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  #2  
Old Posted Aug 1, 2022, 7:47 PM
iheartthed iheartthed is online now
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On the other end, a city located about 40 miles east of Ann Arbor is second to last on the list.
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  #3  
Old Posted Aug 1, 2022, 8:09 PM
DCReid DCReid is offline
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Wonder how they determined these numbers. The website has no indication. And I am not sure what how accurate they are given that they include multiple cities within some metros like Dallas and Phoenix and given how residents may live in one metro city but work in another. So, if a Mesa resident works as a senior executive making big bucks in downtown Phoenix, what city would this resident be included.
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  #4  
Old Posted Aug 1, 2022, 9:52 PM
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The North One The North One is offline
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Ann Arbor residents are mainly college students with no real income so this makes no sense.

Windsor being bottom doesn't make sense either, property values have gone up but its not that expensive and Windsor has a higher average income than New York City last I checked.
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  #5  
Old Posted Aug 1, 2022, 10:47 PM
iheartthed iheartthed is online now
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Originally Posted by The North One View Post
Windsor being bottom doesn't make sense either, property values have gone up but its not that expensive and Windsor has a higher average income than New York City last I checked.
Not sure where you're getting that. NYC's household median is $67k USD compared to Windsor's $43k USD. And average incomes in NYC would obviously be far higher in NYC than Windsor due to the number of high incomes.
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  #6  
Old Posted Aug 1, 2022, 11:22 PM
Crawford Crawford is offline
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I don't get it.

Ann Arbor probably has the least purchasing power in MI. Incomes are low, home prices are high, housing stock limited, residents tend to be young and/or students and restaurants & services have inflated costs. It's probably the most "unaffordable" municipality in MI, going by typical metrics.
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  #7  
Old Posted Aug 2, 2022, 12:14 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by The North One View Post
Ann Arbor residents are mainly college students with no real income so this makes no sense.

Windsor being bottom doesn't make sense either, property values have gone up but its not that expensive and Windsor has a higher average income than New York City last I checked.
When I saw Orlando ranked near St. Louis I knew this list was foolish. All my Florida friends are renters or have roommates. Most of the people I know in St. Louis have been homeowners since their 20s.
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  #8  
Old Posted Aug 2, 2022, 1:39 AM
iheartthed iheartthed is online now
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Crawford View Post
I don't get it.

Ann Arbor probably has the least purchasing power in MI. Incomes are low, home prices are high, housing stock limited, residents tend to be young and/or students and restaurants & services have inflated costs. It's probably the most "unaffordable" municipality in MI, going by typical metrics.
The set of cities on the list seems pretty arbitrary (where are Grand Rapids and Lansing?), but I don't think Ann Arbor's position is wildly out of place for the set of cities listed.
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  #9  
Old Posted Aug 2, 2022, 2:13 AM
lio45 lio45 is online now
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Quote:
Originally Posted by goat314 View Post
When I saw Orlando ranked near St. Louis I knew this list was foolish. All my Florida friends are renters or have roommates. Most of the people I know in St. Louis have been homeowners since their 20s.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Crawford View Post
I don't get it.

Ann Arbor probably has the least purchasing power in MI. Incomes are low, home prices are high, housing stock limited, residents tend to be young and/or students and restaurants & services have inflated costs. It's probably the most "unaffordable" municipality in MI, going by typical metrics.
Quote:
Originally Posted by The North One View Post
Ann Arbor residents are mainly college students with no real income so this makes no sense.

Windsor being bottom doesn't make sense either, property values have gone up but its not that expensive and Windsor has a higher average income than New York City last I checked.
Guys, the metric is after-tax disposable income, it doesn't say anything about housing.

If the average after-tax income in Orlando (no state income tax) is $70k and the average net income in St. Louis after Missouri taxes take their bite is $65k, then people have more purchasing power in Orlando, even if they're doomed to rent, while there are near-free properties available in STL.
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  #10  
Old Posted Aug 2, 2022, 2:43 AM
Crawford Crawford is offline
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If it's after tax disposable income, it's a garbage ranking. You can't rank without factoring in costs.

And Ann Arbor doesn't have high incomes, it has high housing costs. It's the least "affordable" county (by typical affordability factors) in MI. Neighboring Oakland County, which is much richer, has much lower housing costs.

Ann Arbor has a growth boundary and is super NIMBY. It also has 50,000 students, many of them wealthy and out-of-state. And the housing stock is quite modest. It's basically a mini-SF, affordability-wise, in the Midwest.
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  #11  
Old Posted Aug 2, 2022, 2:48 AM
lio45 lio45 is online now
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Crawford View Post
If it's after tax disposable income, it's a garbage ranking. You can't rank without factoring in costs.
It's kind of garbage, yes. But it's measuring something: how much after-tax $ average people have to play with in the various cities.

Now, obviously, richer cities tend to have expensive housing, and in many cases, likely eats all (or even more than that!) of the extra disposable income.

That apparently isn't measured.

So, it's telling us that people in San Francisco have on average more $ in their pockets than people in St. Louis, while failing to tell us that people in St. Louis actually have a much better quality of life even with their lower incomes.

(Note: that's my interpretation based on what dimondpark said in his post. I may be wrong.)


Not all that useful, I agree. But it would tell someone that Texas probably has no state income tax -- a correct conclusion. And it would tell someone who's aware that CA has high income taxes that San Jose and Fremont and Santa Clara have very high paying jobs -- again another correct conclusion. Moreover, Jersey City's high ranking would also tell someone that NJ has lower income taxes than NY; I have no idea if that's true but I'm betting it is, and I 100% deduced that from that list.
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  #12  
Old Posted Aug 2, 2022, 12:19 PM
Northern Light Northern Light is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by lio45 View Post
It's kind of garbage, yes. But it's measuring something: how much after-tax $ average people have to play with in the various cities.

Now, obviously, richer cities tend to have expensive housing, and in many cases, likely eats all (or even more than that!) of the extra disposable income.

That apparently isn't measured.

So, it's telling us that people in San Francisco have on average more $ in their pockets than people in St. Louis, while failing to tell us that people in St. Louis actually have a much better quality of life even with their lower incomes.

(Note: that's my interpretation based on what dimondpark said in his post. I may be wrong.)


Not all that useful, I agree. But it would tell someone that Texas probably has no state income tax -- a correct conclusion. And it would tell someone who's aware that CA has high income taxes that San Jose and Fremont and Santa Clara have very high paying jobs -- again another correct conclusion. Moreover, Jersey City's high ranking would also tell someone that NJ has lower income taxes than NY; I have no idea if that's true but I'm betting it is, and I 100% deduced that from that list.

There's a bunch of other issues that are problematic here (with this list).

Though this will vary by province and state, let's broadly assert that Canadians will pay more tax than their U.S. counterparts in the majority of cases.

On the other hand, in Quebec, and soon across the country, childcare is $10 per day due to state subsidies, which means a much lower cost of childcare that the typical American in a large city would pay.

An Apples to Apples comparison would also have to consider out-of-pocket healthcare costs.

My point here is not shift the rankings or get into a better or worse game; but to assume what when we all think of purchasing power, its about what you can buy for your $$; both in 'mandatory purchases' (housing, food) and discretionary purchases (vacations, electronics) and the in-betweens (furniture, clothing).

Simply put, the list as shown does paint a particularly useful or detailed picture of what the median quality of life is like and how that correlated to either pre or post-tax income.
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