lumpenstein
Active Member
Yes, actually you are correct and I'm surprised a liberal such as yourself understands economics!I have explained to people countless times that you are almost always better off financially in the long run living in he area with the higher cost of living even if the salaries don't fully compensate (and they usually don't) due to the increases in the value of your home. For example people who lived in California in the 1960s may have paid $40,000 for their house (don't know--just using examples) whereas in some other city with a much cheaper COL paid $15,000. However, 40 years later, the house in California is worth well in excess of a million whereas the house in the cheaper city is worth $200 or $300 thousand.
But--you also pay a price in standard of living. That is in that cheaper city you can live in a much bigger house with more land, etc., etc.
You may call me a liberal if you wish and I don't care but I am far from stupid.
Calgary is the hottest economy in North America due to Alberta's oil fields and the rising price of oil. There is actually a manpower deficit and we are importing workers from all over. due to the glut of incoming people the price of housing has skyrocketed and there is even something called the "working homeless". Our humble little house was bought about 10 years ago at about $135,000. It was evaluated just over a year ago at $350,000. I can't see that happening in a small town, though so many people here have abandonned the city for cheaper outlying towns that the houses in those towns cost just as much as here.
