What cities are the closes to being worth living in for what you pay for? In my opinion it seems like Austin, TX or Chicago? Austin is very cool and not crazy expensive and has everything you want outside sports teams. Chicago has everything although brutal winters. Its cooler than NYC to me and much cheaper, plus it has a beach and cool culture overall. What cities do you all think are the biggest bang for your buck?
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From what I hear Chicago or NYC isn’t worth it strictly on safety alone. never been to Austin but hear good things. Apparently Nashville is kinda a hidden gem a well. I plan to do a little trip there to see how true that is
I would not say Austin is bang for buck right now. It is not handling the boom very well and its infrastructure probably didn’t even meet its needs for 10 years ago, let alone what’s going on today and definitely not the needs for 10 years in the future. And being a blue state capitol in a red state, there’s always the looming problem of the legislature trying to kneecap Austin.
Chicago developed progressively over time and even though it could use a lot of upgrading, its got good bones and isn’t dealing with a massive population surge. It mostly has the infrastructure in place, it just needs upgrading.
I think pretty much every major city in Ohio, Indiana, Michigan is underrated and kind of hope it stays that way. I’ll throw Louisville on there too, not technically Midwest but also has great bones, a really good set of neighborhoods, and they also have a race where they go around in a circle once a year. Pretty much feels like home to me.
Chicago.
Cheaper than other big cities. Phenomenal cities.
if you’re only comparing cities, it’s going to favor less populated ones.
Austin or Chicago are pretty up there in terms of population, and relatively popular places to own/rent a home – which implies landlords can charge almost whatever they want, because some sucker will feel like they’re getting a good deal.
Simply googling “cheapest city to live in US” came back with Charlotte, North Carolina.
So you might need to look for less touristy-kind of city hubs, and expand out toward other, less tourist infested & generally lower population centers rather than immediately popping off with Chicago.
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Can also depend on how or what you define as a city. There’s some cities in my state that have less than 70,000 people, some even less than 10,000, but still qualify as between common “it’s a city” designation of 1,500+ people.
If you go with that kind of definition of a city (by it’s population), there’s MANY MANY MANY more affordable places to live than either Austin or Chicago.
Are you only interested in big cities? A mid-sized city (think ranked 50-100 in population instead of 1, 3, or 11 like the ones you name) will be much, much cheaper and still provide a lot of amenities.
As an Austinite, Austin will only seem cheap if you’re in SF or NYC. It has got to be the most overrated city in the country.
I agree with Chicago. I love it there, and it really is cheaper. Winter is gross and the crime should not be underestimated (or, for that matter, overestimated).
Grand Rapids, Milwaukee, Indianapolis, Raleigh/Durham
Chicago