For an imperfect but pretty good comparison of the cost-of-living between different cities, check out Numbeo: www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/comparison.jsp For salary comparisons between cities in the U.S., check out the Intuit Mint Salary Database: mint.intuit.com/salary/

Great video! Transportation costs are such a big factor, its amazing how many people still live in a city like Toronto with a car. Could save a *lot* every month without!

What’s really sad about retail workers making so much less is that people will say “They’re not longterm jobs. People should work to get a new career, not stay in retail.” But when you’re in retail you’re hardly paid enough to access the basic necessities, so how are you meant to move up?

"Kids need more space, but don't bring in any money" * Charles Dickens has entered the chat.

We live in a walkable neighbourhood in Toronto. We're also 50 metres from a subway station and we don't own a car. Rent controls keep our apartment cost reasonable - but honestly, we couldn't afford to move into a new place because rent control doesn't apply to new rentals. Luckily, Toronto is very affordable for us, but it might not be so easy for new renters.

I bought a home, didn’t sell a car, and have a job that can be done in a cheaper city, but living in downtown Toronto is still 100% worth it to me for the quality of life factors you mentioned near the end of the video lol. Still, this video does a great job of showing the potential cost benefits of moving to an expensive city, such as transit and work opportunity.

Something that keeps me looking for a home in an expensive urban center is the cost of socializing. People that live further away from the city tend to also have their homes very far from any place where they can meet friends. As a result, they always tend to meet up with people at their home which leads to them doing these lavish projects in order to make their living room and backyards a usable “meeting place.” Projects which don’t always actually add the the overall value of the home. But when you live in a more urban area you tend to have lots of access to great bars, breweries, restaurants, parks, etc all within walking distance! So If I’m meeting with a large group of people it’s more likely that we just meet at one of those locations!

My family and I live in downtown Ottawa, and I feel like the amount we save not owning a car is really what makes the difference in us being able to afford our enjoyable lifestyle.

Lol, I live in Palo Alto, CA - when people from around here go bankrupt and lose everything they move to more affordable places such as NY, Toronto etc.

A good comparison. Shows how many factors they are and how personal and subjective it ultimately all is. I have made both expensive major cities and smaller less expensive ones work for me. Currently living in a big, expensive city and yes I am well aware the housing costs more here but I also have lots of friends here, like the area, and am earning enough money to afford that cost of living, so it is worth it *to me.* It does not hurt my feelings that others choose to live elsewhere because it is not worth it *to them.*

1:15 - As a Mancunian (though soon to leave for London on account of my job😥), thank you for recognising Manchester as England's second city. 🙏

Love the model railroad shot at the end... :D (And, to be clear, the rest of the video too! Especially fun recognizing the locations in my time living in or near Toronto, Ottawa, and SF. :)

In big cities, salary is a big difference but so is opportunity. The verdict may not be out on this yet, but I believe even in the remote work era, you could still be missing out on a lot of potential opportunities by living in a city with little job market in your sector. So, not only does your salary tend to increase for the same career level, you may find yourself actually advancing faster in your career as well which makes an even bigger difference in salary.

There is a pretty interesting video by Tech Altar in which he calculates the average costs by the lifetime of the vehicle, which is insanely high. Sometimes it may be worth paying more to be car free, if you're paying the price of a small condo just for a depreciating piece of metal.

Thanks for the great and informative video loving the content on the Channel!

Thank you for making this! I recently moved from Chicago to San Francisco, and this video helps me articulate how the increased cost of living is ultimately offset by a number of factors (especially #1 rent vs buy price difference). Related note -- very few of the other transplants I know in SF plan to settle in the Bay Area because of how expensive buying is, vs Chicago where a lot of other transplants I knew thought they might stay

When I moved from my small town in Maine to just outside of Washington D.C., the cost of living went up quite a bit, but my pay went up way more. And I had access to so much more. Even the public transit, which isn't great, was so much better. But as you say, the cost of buying a home was WAY higher here. Of course, now the price to buy a home in Maine has skyrocketed and you still don't have access to anything, unless you really like trees.

I live in the Bay Area and it's tough with the housing costs. I save money on transportation as I sold my car and primarily get around by my electric bike. But it's definitely not possible for me to buy a house here. It's somewhat ok for renting, only a matter of time until I move away to buy property. For now though there's a lot of fun things to do here and easy to make friends because people are always moving here (and of course moving out because of the cost) so it's easy to meet people.

KZfaq really knows how to recomend good small channels. Informative with charts and a nice narration with separated topics along the lines. Are you guys teachers? I hope so.

I love this well rounded video on this topic. I can really relate as we are looking to moving from a small town that is pretty walkable of you live near downtown to a medium size city in Ontario.

I went to college in a small city, just over the 100,000 mark, and I recall an engineering prof say that when he was working in industry he had a job offer in a big city. He crunched the numbers and found with the increased living costs made the salary increase much less impressive so it wasn’t worth moving. This was probably in the early 2000’s but the same can often hold true today.

Having grown up in Sydney, I moved to Adelaide way back in 85:and was much happier with everything except the weather. I doubt that anything will sway new arrivals, esp international students, from choosing Sydney or Melbourne over any other town in Oz but it all feeds into the insane price of real estate.

Great video! I'm Fort Worth, TX and right now I'm working with a lot of people from NYC. I think the differences between us are really interesting. When I was a kid the dream of any creative Fort Worth kid was to move to NYC but talking to them their dream is only to move to Long Island or Florida!

I was really surprised at the price difference between Chicago and New York. I would have thought it would be closer. I also love how at the end of the video you say Bike and Subscribe 😉...

I own my house in Atlanta and have been considering downsizing and possibly moving to a smaller city. I'd love it if you did a video on walkable mid sized cities

I work remote and get no CoL adjustment so if I was logical, like y'all said, I'd find the cheapest area with decent Internet, but I just love living in cities too much haha

I was looking into purchasing in Toronto and this video saves my sanity a bit. The mortgages that wouldn't go anywhere near buying a home I could afford had a higher monthly payment on 30 years than the house i'm renting out of (converted apartment). Even though we are only renting out half a house half the property value on mortgage is a lot more than our rent it would seem.

i biked and subscribed ❤

The reason rent is less crazy in these cities is that housing is appreciating in value all on its own. If the structure is a depreciating asset like a single family home in dallas rent has to amortize the cost of construction, pay running costs, and provide a profit for the owner. Versus an apartment in SF where the value is going to accrue tremendously and the rent just functions as a form of tax abatement on the appreciating asset.

I'm also in Ottawa and don't have a car but it really limits what I can do sometimes because of our transit system (thanks Sutcliffe!) Just got winter tires on my bike so that's fun.

It's still pretty affordable across the river from New York City in New Jersey but that's changing fast.

Big Thanks Patreon supporters. You do heavy lifting to support channels like this or others that I appreciate.

I live in London in Uni Halls, they are very affordable compared to any alternative but it is still more than the loan I get from the government for living, it is literally the cheapest room I could get.

I spent many years in Sydney before coming to the US and I still miss it every day. The transportation there is great. Living in Australia, the rent cost is /week not /month. may be new info for some out there.

Fellow Ottawa peeps! Could you do an update on Ottawas mayor and what effects Mark will have on the city’s PT? Or, if you’re looking for a more general video, maybe how much local officials affect city PT

You could have mentioned access to parents. Grandparents in some proximity can be very valuable to parents, especially as costs for care is insane in the us from what I know about it.

I read a news article the other day about how if you owned a house in Sydney it literally appreciated more for 30 quarters (so 7.5 years) up to 2019 than the average income during that time ie if someone saved every $ they earned it would be less than the difference between what they bought a house for and what it would sell for.

I live in one of the most affordable major cities in Canada and I still had to make the decision between rent and having a car. Fortunately the transit is good enough and I’m healthy enough to ride a bike.

Great Video! I do think you left out one important consideration though... namely: "Regional Differences in Taxes and Commodity Prices". I moved from Vancouver to Calgary 2 years ago, on top of much cheaper housing, there is also slightly lower income tax and no provincial sales taxes in Alberta. Saving a full 7% on purchases vs living in Ontario or BC leads to HUGE savings on top of Alberta's already better commodity prices. I regularly save up to 10k a year with these tax considerations

"Work From Home" vs "On Site Work" is the new class struggle as on site work often pays much less that jobs that are done remotely. While On-Site workers have to spend money on child care, transportation and lunches plus they are exposed to diseases, harassment and possibly even violence from co-workers whilst At-Home workers sit in their comfortable home or coffee shop or park or beach and work without any of the expense and risks of On-Site workers. "At-homers" make more and have less expense.

Surprised to see my home town's airport (REC) in the stock footage at 4:17 !

Automotive literacy goes a long way to reducing transportation costs outside of big cities. my old prius has a total cost of ownership (purchase, gas, insurance, repairs, fees) averaging to $5000 a year

It's even more interesting when you add in "black swan" or "fat tail" events, like wildfires, earthquakes, power outages, or even municipal bankruptcy. Cities have a lot of redundancy built into them, and tend to bounce back better from these events. People remember Sandy hitting New York, and complained about it, but it also hit New Jersey and no one even cares. I'm glad I was in New York City and not a Jersey's suburb during 2012.

I live in the Pittsburgh area, I do own a car but only drive it 1x a week to visit family in a neighboring county. Cost of living is low, Wages are decent, and much of the metro area is walkable, and there are frequent enough busses if I want to leave my town to visit another or visit the Metropolis. Our airport used to be a hub, but has shrunk alot so almost all flights especially international ones will require flying to a bigger airport, and flights are usually pretty cheap from here.

I live in Hong Kong, one of the most expensive places to own property and highest petrol price in the world. Public transportation is very efficient so I didn't need a car for 30 years. The savings and opportunities gained over thirty years were used to buy a primary residence in HK and rental properties abroad

lol. I live in Salt Lake. No way am I moving to LA. I think we have better public transportation than LA too. 😬

I wish there were more medium size walkable cities. Row townhouses with small private (not shared!) backyards are so common in Europe but almost non-existent in the US

They are right about the transportation. I have two cars and barely use the other. In Houston I’d be driving three cars

Curious to know what your experience has been with OC Transpo without a car. Specifically with the LRT going down for like 4-5 days or something and I keep hearing buses are extremely unreliable

Interesting to point out that moving and working in a rural area and working there can also mean cheaper transport. It costs me half as much in fuel to live and work in the country than the city simply because in the country I am travelling just a few blocks to work. Many rural workers end up spending the amount they save in fuel and car costs by travelling to the city for a big shop once or twice a year.

Definitely crazy. Anything you can find in one of those expensive cities you can find in a smaller city. Even if you make good money in one of these cities, throwing it all away at an expensive rent/mortgage is just a waste when you can live somewhere with a more reasonable cost of living.

Sonja Trauss founded the YIMBY movement in the Bay Area when she was a public school teacher. Northern Virginia where I am is also unlivable for teachers in the local schools, though probably not to the degree of California.

I keep hoping to see you kids on Ottawa's multi-use paths.

As someone who moved from Dallas to the Bay Area, I feel sorry for the retail workers here. They have to live so far away from work. Terrible commute. Regarding housing, prices are about double here for rent, though it's narrowing due to increasing rents in Dallas. The cost of a house has to be about triple here. I want a house, but it's out of the question unless I move outside of the Bay Area.

What about the outskirts of big cities? Or small cities in the surrounding are of the big city?

i think that it is worth considering that bigger cities are bigger, so even with much better public transportation one is still likely to spend more time in transit than in small city

This video didn’t consider public transit cost though In nyc it’s about to be close to $3 per person per ride I realize it’s still a lot cheaper than the 1k example for a car given here but it’s not free

toronto is generally considered a world city. also don't really agree that ottawa is mid-size with a metro population over a million lol. it's definitely a major city

I think London, UK doesn't really deserve to be on the same scale of high cost of living like NYC, Toronto, Vancouver. Being ~30 minutes on transit out of the centre can cost as low as £1100 ($1350 USD) for a decent 1 bedroom or £750 for a flat share which just doesn't exist similar distances out of the city in NYC! When you factor in the cost of no car needed, London actually becomes super affordable compared to cities like Machester, Birmingham etc where a car is much more of a necessity.

Honestly Ottawa’s transit system and bike network r pretty decent for a city of its size. I found it way easier to live in Ottawa car-free than Toronto (GTA)

Hi, just a video suggestion. Urban farming. Also, given that life would be impossible in dense cities if fossile fuels came to be more scarce or expensive (food prices mosty, but also the erosion of the jobs supporting this density), what mitigation strategies cities have implemented to boost resiliency? (Goes back to urban farming).

1000$ a month on a 2017 honda civic in canada? My 18 brz's calculated average was 750-800$ back when i drove it more.... and that car ran premium gas. This was a quebec car until recently

Something that I think about often but won't show up in the data for years is the effect of highly paid remote workers moving to cheap places. It makes total sense for those individuals financially since they get more bang for their buck. But they also drive up rents due to higher demand for places not built for growth. A town known for its ski resort doesn't pay its workers as much as Google will and when push comes to shove, those tech workers will push out those workers since they have so much more financial leverage to pay for limited housing. What was an affordability and gentrification problem for big coastal cities could become a problem everywhere.

Don't the wealthiest people tend to live around state/national capitals, not just because they're big cities but because so many rich folks make their money from the government as lawyers, consultants, administrators etc? Your analysis of blue collar jobs is interesting but I suspect Cambria has a higher average income compared to Sydney because of the lucrative government jobs that don't include teachers and nurses.

I currently live in Los Angeles for school, but when I finish school I plan to leave LA as soon as possible. It's expensive here, I will never be able to afford a nice home, it's very hard to get around on public transit (plus I prefer having a car anyways). To me it makes no economic sense to stay in Los Angeles. I'm looking at other options in other states, such as Las Vegas, Phoenix, Tucson, San Antonio, and Dallas. That being said, if I was more interested in living in a denser urban core, or if my post-school job required me to live in Los Angeles, I would consider staying.

I can only say this about New York, a city that I have lived for 20 years. The problem with modern urbanism is that everything centers around an area, in NYC's case Manhattan. The cities that I have experienced as affordable provide to each neighborhood the amenities of a "city center", parks, plazas, shopping, even a business area, that way the areas close the "city center" become just playgrounds for the rich. Examples of cities that each neighborhood provides plenty of amenities to skip the center are Barcelona, Chicago, Vienna, all relatively affordable compared to the cities listed here. In San Francisco, the entire Bay Area is centered around it, making San Francisco just ridiculous to be around.

I can't stand being stuck in traffic seven days a week . It causes high blood pressure so big car-centric cities have their disadvantages.

In Ney York for example you can spend 600 Dollar a month for parking spot

I can't afford a car no matter where I live. Not if I don't want to live in that car. Living in a moderate sized city with decent transit makes life without a car a lot better than living in a small town with bad transit. The really expensive cities are too expensive for me, period.

I save so much by not having to own/maintain/insure/store an automobile that I'm able to afford a much larger apartment in the city than I would have if I didn't live in such a walkable area.

4:19 the airport of my city Recife-PE in Brazil 😂😂😂

I own a house in Chelsea and love shopping snd dining at Harrods.

Great video! I guess I'm one of those "Crazy People" who live in a crazy expensive city like *Beautiful San Francisco!* 😅😜 Although for me I live in San Francisco mostly because I'm born and raised in San Francisco🌫🌉

Walking away from walkable Canadian cities sadly, so many mentally ill ppl on the street. Car-dependent places at least offer you safety.

I live in Toronto, yes it cost more but it's the only city in Canada I would live in. I would be very bored living anywhere else in Canada ( accept maybe Vancouver ) I love big city life!

Why can’t affordable areas with vast amounts of land build car optional developments instead?

I think that the move to work from home might reverse the 'Great Urban Migration.' Some businesses still required coming into the office even if just sometimes, but a lot are not requiring it at all and can be done from anywhere.

Your cost of car ownership is way, *way* overstated. 2280 / yr in maintenance? About $3600 / yr in insurance? Have you guys ever *owned* a car? I will gladly provide you my cost of ownership breakdown but the last time I calculated it, when I figured in everything it cost me less than $2k / yr for a used car over the 14 years I've owned it. I've also never seen anyone account for the value of your time when taking public transit. That's a whole other factor that is totally overlooked when a ~ 30m drive turns into a 90m bus ride.

I think the conclusion that generally renting is financially preferable to home ownership is a bit misguided. I live in Dublin, here average rent payments are sometimes 2/3x higher than the mortgage repayment for a same value property. The cause of this is the continued shrinking pool of rentals on the market (nationwide there is on average less than 1000 properties available to rent). The result is would be first time buyers who otherwise would be able to meet the criteria required for a mortgage are unable to do so as their housing costs are preventing them to save up for a deposit. This in turn locks people into the rental market further inflating demand and costs.

danm my career, I have to move to Burbank

One solution is housing cooperatives like the Benny farm coop in NDG in Montreal. They at least give some working people a chance

Don't forget to bike and subscribe. I liked that.

I was forced out from Montreal because of prices. I now need to live in my friend's basement. It's not a great situation and I miss sunlight dearly, but I can't really afford to live in the city. Once my cat dies, I will have much more choice in apartments, so when that happens I might be able to find a decently priced apartment in the city, but until that happens, I don't see how I can go back there.

is that your layout at the end?

That is why I am force to live in a cheap city los angeles. lol

Toronto isn't even the most expensive city in Canada. It's Vancouver with higher housing prices and lower wages.

as a sydneysider... Sydney has a ridiculous market for renting and due to government policies such as negative gearing, investment property owners are more willing to hoard housing. Yes, a single house is hard, but after that the second is easy... causing prices to skyrocket. Renting is also a pain as there are higher initial prices to offset for landlords, and the rent further fuels the ability for landlords to invest, fueling prices. basically in Sydney... you are screwed either way.

god those rent vs buy comparisons are so depressing... homeownership just feels more and more out of reach and we have to 'settle' for renting.

Still would not live outside of the city. Once you have lived in big city you will miss all of the amenities and perks.

I have been living in Toronto for 19 years, and I never felt the need to own a car

Are you sure it’s Toronto and not Vancouver 😅

I live in a cheap city where you can lease a house for under a thousand dollars, but you absolutely need a car. It is at least better to walk some places than to bike anywhere. Businesses are far apart and quality of life is minimum.. But I like the city because I don't have to spend a lot to live better. I'm never under pressure to cut back or spend less. So even with NYC public transportation (the city I was born), I like Fayetteville better (the city I live now). I don't have dress to impress or dress in style, because no one cares.

People tend to obsess about the differences in rents as a means of comparing costs between places but they don't consider that many things don't change in price. A Macbook still costs $3000 wherever you are in the world. A hotel in Tuscany costs the same regardless of whether you're flying in from Houston or NYC. Further, when you save $1000 in the bank, that $1000 is the same amount no matter where you are. At the end of the day, living in expensive cities earns a much higher salary and actually significantly decreases the relative costs of consumer goods, travel, and savings. That's why you'll see loads of people wearing designer clothes in NYC -- a $500 pair of pants is insane to someone who's rent is $650, but if you live in a $4000 Manhattan studio apartment, then the purchase isn't so big of a deal. In sum, if you value price inelastic things (consumer goods, travel, savings) more than having lots of space, then the big city is a good choice (not factoring in lifestyle of course), while if you value large space above these things then living in a small town or rural area would be more your cup of tea.

Toronto includes cities more than 100 km (60 miles ) away from downtown to get the title of the biggest city in Canada . the niagara region is included in Toronto and it takes more than 90 minutes by car . Non sense .

Why is Hong Kong not mentioned??

I'm living in NY, and it's better to buy a home here as it will sharply increase In the real estate. Live outside of city and you're fine

The future is high te h small towns or small cities.

Okay, I love your videos, but the new chapter cut screens give me motion sickness.

Why you listed Toronto when Vancouver is way more expensive?

This video just makes me annoyed that the UK left the EU, cos as much as London is an amazing city for public transport and walkability (and ok for biking - better than most north American cities), it's super expensive to live here, yet if we were still in the EU, I could easily move to Amsterdam, and somehow get: a cheaper cost of living (marginally), a pay increase (at least according to Glassdoor), and a dramatic increase in walkability and bike ability (although a slight drop in public transport quality although the walkability and bikeability more than makes up for that).