Seattle Ranked #9 in Cities Where A Paycheck Stretches the Furthest

Recently Forbes writer, Joel Kotkin and his colleague Mark Shill of the Praxis Strategy Group looked at the average annaul wages in the nations’s 51 largest metropolitan statistical areas and adjusted incomes by the cost of living to decipher what factors make a paycheck stretch the furthest. The results were surprising and revealing.

When we think of cities like New York, Los Angeles, or San Francisco are usually the ones that come to mind for top earning jobs. However, wages are only part of the equation. Higher prices in those East and West Coast cities mean the fat paychecks aren’t necessarily getting the locals ahead. Once cost of living is factored in, most of the places that boast the highest effective pay turn out to be in the less celebrated and less expensive middle part of the country, one of those being Seattle, WA!

In first place is Houston, where the average annual wage in 2011 was $59,838, eighth highest in the nation. However, what puts Houston at the top of the list is the region’s low cost of living, utilities, and transportation costs and, most importantly, housing prices.

Then we come to Seattle in ninth place!! Wahoo! It did place first on the list of cities leading the way in manufacturing and STEM employment growth. Housing costs, while high, are far less than in most coastal California or northeast metropolitan areas. The 2011 adjusted annual wage: $53,874, average annual wage was $60,123, unadjusted rank: #7.

The important factor here is to maintain affordablity and a wide range of high paying jobs may not be as glamorous a metric for success as the number of hip web startups, even though with the help of phoenix custom ecommerce websites people can design their own website and can actually get paid a lot. But over time it is likely to be about as good a guide to future prospects as we have.

Original Story Here: The Cities Where A Paycheck Stretches The Furthest