Choosing a job

[Lazy8s]

I am looking at my job offers that I have to choose between by next week. They are located in Raleigh NC, Orlando FL and Marietta GA. I was really excited to see I was offered about 15% more in Raleigh than the other two and I thought it would be great. The offer is still good but after running some cost of living calculators it looks like Raleigh is 15-20% more expensive than the others. Can anyone with experience in one or more of the cities weigh in? I can't believe Raleigh is so much more expensive than one of the nicest metro Atlanta suburbs and Orlando. However the average home price there is listed at 313k vs 250 at the others.

 

[Newbian]

So what kind of jobs are we looking at?

 

[Vette73]

Don't know where you are getting your info but Raleigh is pretty cheap compared to most major cities.

You can also look in Cary NC as it is beside Raleigh.

Where is the job?

 

[Mermaidman]

Florida does not have a state income tax, which shows favorably on cost-of-living, but I can't believe average home prices in Raleigh exceeds $300K! Should be just under $200K.

Personally, I'd choose Raleigh over horrible Orlando.

 

[lokiju]

Doesn't NFS4 live in that area? Maybe he can chime in...

 

[Lazy8s]

I am getting the info off of salary.com and bestplaces.net. Both of them use the government COL index. Orlando is like 94 and Raleigh is 106. I will look at Cary. Both jobs are with major defense contractors.

 

[Newbian]

Originally posted by: lokiju
Doesn't NFS4 live in that area? Maybe he can chime in...

Just another reason to move as far away from there as you can.

 

[JohnCU]

aircooled, NFS4, xsauronx, sagalore, redfraggle, any of those people can help, as can anand and derek

 

[Lazy8s]

Wow even Cary is listed as 104 on the col index. It just doesn't seem right. 84 housing price index in Orlando, 120 in cary nc. Does this stuff take federally subsidized housing into account or something?
My parents like about 13mi from Bobby Cox in Marietta I can't believe Raleigh or Cary are 20% more expensive than that.

 

[trmiv]

Where did you get that median home price for Raleigh? No way is that correct.

EDIT: On Bestplaces.net the median home cost for Raleigh is listed at $202,480. We paid $190,000 for an 1875sqft 4 bedroom house in late 2007, and the prices have gone down since then. I bet the average home price (not median) is around $185,000 here now.

 

[arch113]

DISA?

 

[SagaLore]

Originally posted by: Lazy8s
The offer is still good but after running some cost of living calculators it looks like Raleigh is 15-20% more expensive than the others.

This is completely untrue. I moved here because the cost of living was relatively low compared to those other cities.

 

[Lazy8s]

Trmiv, I was using city-data.com for a more detailed breakdown, though when I just checked it showed 294k for a detached house in Raleigh and 334 in Cary. It seems there is some discrepancy between sites for sure. Maybe I need to call the chamber of commerce and see if they have more accurate numbers.

Saga, I am still very skeptical myself. It just doesn't seem right.

 

[wiredspider]

why don't you go look at some actual house listings for the areas around the jobs on one of them home selling sites?

 

[soulcougher73]

Well i have visited all the cities you listed and i would chose Raliegh personally. My company actually has an office there. I should look into a transfer out of KC LOL.

 

[blinky8225]

The Triangle area shouldn't be too expensive. If you don't mind commuting about 20-30 minutes, you can always live in Durham. It's cheap, but of course, there are parts of it that are pretty ghetto. If you're still young, you might enjoy Durham and Chapel Hill since they are home to great universities. Chapel Hill is fairly expensive, though. Cary has some of the best public schools in North Carolina, contains many transplants, and is rightfully a more expensive area to live.

The problem is that the housing market never completely collapsed here like it did in some other areas of the country.

 

[zinfamous]

Originally posted by: Marlin1975
Don't know where you are getting your info but Raleigh is pretty cheap compared to most major cities.

You can also look in Cary NC as it is beside Raleigh.

Where is the job?

well, Cary is way more expensive--the bastard stepchild of Raleigh, stands for: Containment Area for Relocated Yankees.

the water bills there are preposterous.

Anyhoo, Raleigh is undergoing a huge growth spurt that they aren't quite prepared for (so says my good buddy at the water plant), so it would not surprise me that costs have risen. It's very popular for young families, the job market is ridiculous, great schools, blah blah.

I grew up there, but I can't honestly give an opinion about cost as I moved away after college and haven't really lived there sense. Only for a year did I have a "Real" job in Raleigh, but wasn't exactly on my own at the time.

What I can say, though, is that it's definitely cheaper than Chicago or Berkeley/SF.

 

[NFS4]

Originally posted by: lokiju
Doesn't NFS4 live in that area? Maybe he can chime in...

The Raleigh area is relatively cheap, but my fiance and I chose to buy a house in Garner (southeast of Raleigh). Housing prices are even cheaper there -- it's also a bit more "country" in that it's quite a bit quieter than Raleigh and traffic isn't as bad either. You also see lots of farmland and horses and stuff.

We were looking at new townhomes at Renissance Park in Raleigh and they were running around $180 - $190k for ~1700 sq ft.

We ended up getting a 3-year-old house in Garner (1950 sq ft, one car garage, three bedrooms, 2.5 baths) for under $170k.

It's nice to have piece and quiet at night and not have to listen to rowdy college kids all the time or deal with insane parking issues like at my old house in Raleigh. Now the loudest thing I hear are frogs when I go out on the back porch at night

 

[IEC]

I would go with Raleigh over the other two, but that may just be me. COL in the Triangle area is not bad.