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For NYC, SF and Boston probably in many ways the job market drives this based on organic industry or proof in the pudding
For DC, the gov't subsidy of good jobs drives a lot of this
DC can thank the american taxpayers (now and into the future we took a loan out on DC), you are welcome
So why live in those cities when you can live in a lower cost area for less? Why not get a job somewhere else? Why do people pay so much when they have so little left after they pay for housing? You still have not answered the question? There are jobs everywhere. Why do people put up with such high cost of living? If people decided not pay the high rent and high housing costs, the market would have to adjust. If the apartments stayed empty and houses sat on the market, the prices would have to adjust. Why are people paying it? That is the question.
Jobs and the right ones coupled with a good environment
There are many areas of Chicago or Philly even that have similar price points, there are also more in these areas with a lower price point
All things considered I would choose Chicago or Philly over DC but if the right job opportunity were only available in DC I could definately live there as well.
So why live in those cities when you can live in a lower cost area for less? Why not get a job somewhere else? Why do people pay so much when they have so little left after they pay for housing? You still have not answered the question? There are jobs everywhere. Why do people put up with such high cost of living? If people decided not pay the high rent and high housing costs, the market would have to adjust. If the apartments stayed empty and houses sat on the market, the prices would have to adjust. Why are people paying it? That is the question.
DC (Government expansion, war, etc.), NYC (finance) and San Francisco (technology) have dominating industries that attract a large amount of people that need to be in close proximity to their job. They also probably pay the most of any industries.
Other cities with lower costs of living (Chicago, Philadelphia, Houston) do not have such dominating industries. Boston maybe is an outlier in this theory, but it's relative isolation and designation of being the Capital of a large region within a mega-region explain its COL.
Jobs and the right ones coupled with a good environment
There are many areas of Chicago or Philly even that have similar price points, there are also more in these areas with a lower price point
All things considered I would choose Chicago or Philly over DC but if the right job opportunity were only available in DC I could definately live there as well.
What does that have to do with the question? My point is, WHY are people paying these prices? There are millions of jobs in this country. Why live in these area's? Or, since you seem so focused on making this about DC, why do people live in D.C. when the cost of living is so high? Why not just move somewhere else where they would have much more savings after they paid all their bills? D.C.'s job market doesn't even make up a fraction of the jobs in the 50 states in America. What do jobs have to do with it? You can get a job anywhere and you will have more money left over. Why live in D.C.? You hear people say it all the time. I would never move to _____ because it's too expensive. Why are people paying to live there because it is actually very expensive?
DC (Government expansion, war, etc.), NYC (finance) and San Francisco (technology) have dominating industries that attract a large amount of people that need to be in close proximity to their job. They also probably pay the most of any industries.
Other cities with lower costs of living (Chicago, Philadelphia, Houston) do not have such dominating industries. Boston maybe is an outlier in this theory, but it's relative isolation and designation of being the Capital of a large region within a mega-region explain its COL.
You would have more money left over working in other cities after the bills are paid though. D.C. pay does nothing because of the cost of living. You still have less money.
Supply in housing. DC, Boston and San Francisco, for example, are physically tiny cities that pack a large punch.
Chicago and Philadelphia have large deindustrialized areas that keep the overall housing supply up and average costs down but the COL in the CBD is probably much more similar than the overall numbers imply.
But then why is Los Angeles a gateway market?
It seems from perusing the links that gateway markets are established as NYC, DC, Bos, SF, LA - as the OP states. Although I still have no idea what qualifying as a gateway market actually entails. It doesn't seem like anyone does, though everyone on this thread desperately wants their city to be included
It seems from perusing the links that gateway markets are established as NYC, DC, Bos, SF, LA - as the OP states. Although I still have no idea what qualifying as a gateway market actually entails. It doesn't seem like anyone does, though everyone on this thread desperately wants their city to be included
I don't know. I originally stated that NYC, Miami, LA and SF are the only gateway markets. But I still don't know what the OP is trying to convey the term to mean beside a high cost of living.
Anyway, I would like to explicitly state for the record that I DO NOT want my city (Philly) to be included as a gateway market.
Sorry if I somehow implied otherwise. I simply meant to imply that there are non-organic reasons for the high COL in some cities.
You would have more money left over working in other cities after the bills are paid though. D.C. pay does nothing because of the cost of living. You still have less money.
I was just wondering what makes a city a gateway market and what makes a city a non-gateway market. I was also wondering if it had anything to do with the cost of living in these cities. The gateway markets are also the most expensive in the nation. Is there a connection to this?
I think it's important to point out that your source is speaking of "gateway markets" in the real estate sense. To this end, yes, NYC, DC, Boston, SF and LA are all considered top markets for real estate due to extreme restrictions on land supply and potential for yielding profits from investments.
That doesn't mean "gateway" is a catch-all term for everything else, such as cultural, retail or other attributes, especially when excluding "non-gateway" cities would eliminate several of the country's largest metro areas.
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