Cost of Living in Philadelphia/D.C.

[Razor Ramon]

So I know a few of you on these boards live in or around these two cities. For a few reasons (none of them are actually solid yet) I may be moving to one of these two places. Because of that, I need help recalculating how expensive it will be to maintain my lifestyle. The one thing I know will bite me in the ass is having to buy a car. That will eat away at my savings quicker than anything else.

So what's rent, car insurance, electricity, food, etc. like? Any help will be much appreciated.

[Yoshi]

According to Money's calculator, groceries are 3% less, housing is 39% less, utilities are 21% less, transportation is 3% less, and healthcare is 8% less in Hell than in Queens (couldn't remember which borough you live in). For DC, you'd have to look at the surrounding states it appears.

[Frogacuda]

Philly is way cheap for a large city, man. Rent especially is cheap even compared to Jersey. I don't know what your driving history is, but if it's not terrible, the car thing's not going to be more than the other cost of living decreases.

[FirstBlood]

Cost of living in Philly can fluctuate from super crazy low to real high. My rent is $750 split with my girlfriend (utils end up being maybe $100 depending on the season?) but I live in a decently sized 1BR on the border between a super nice & super shitty area. It's real easy to live cheaply here but if you're trying to live in center city it can get pricey, so it's really up to you. Northern Liberties and Fairmount are the two areas where a lot of young-professional types have been filling in nowadays, but there's still plenty of nice areas of South Philly & West Philly. You'd probably want to steer clear of Fishtown, unless you're real into art school kids mixed in with white trash (cheap drinkin' & tons of parties though)

I don't drive but on the Philly board I post at most people were paying something like $1200 annually for average insurance. If you drive, getting to a normal-ass (cheap) grocery store is easy. If you don't, there's still two Whole Foods and a Trader Joe's in CC so you have options. The restaurant scene is pretty booming right now too, lots of new, more reasonably priced gastro-pubs popping up along with the usual, more-pricey suspects (Stephen Starr, etc.)

[Razor Ramon]

I live in Brooklyn, Yoshi. Thanks for that calculator, though.

[Frogacuda]

My rent is $750 split with my girlfriend (utils end up being maybe $100 depending on the season?) but I live in a decently sized 1BR on the border between a super nice & super shitty area

This is retardedly cheap compared to here, let alone Brooklyn.

I have a friend who lives in West Philly for $250 a month. It's very much the ghetto, but fuck is that cheap. I don't know what Ramone's bad neighborhood tolerance is.

[Josh]

I have a car for you.

[Josh]

Gotta be quick though.

[Razor Ramon]

I won't have a decision for months.

My tolerance for shit neighborhoods is non-existent. I already left one I'm not going right into another.

Also, spell my name right or fuck you.

[Type Ryan]

If you're going to live in/work close to D.C., you may not need a car. A co-worker moved from NC and commutes via Metro from his place near DuPont circle. It's pricey living in the city, so you'll definitely be looking at a rommate situation. Also, the night life around D.C. may be somewhat similar to what you're used to in NYC.