Top 10 States for Earning a Living

[Annie Laurie]

http://www.money-rates.com/research-center/best-states-to-make-a-living/2011.htm

 

Do you agree? I live in TX and I agree that it seems easier to make a comfortable living here. However, I detest the weather and have wanted to move for a long, long time, so it made me happy to see Washington and Illinois on this list.

 

Here's the list of the worst states:

 

http://www.money-rates.com/research-center/worst-states-to-make-a-living

[hunt]

I have heard Missouri is one of the top ten states.

[Parrothead]

Well, the worst states list doesn't surprise me. ;)

[LostSurprise]

Considering the severe budget problems Illinois is having right now (to the point that state and local workers are afraid for their pensions) and the cuts in services that need to be done just to survive, I doubt the helpfulness of this list.

[Luckymama]

We've been very happy in Delaware ;)

[momma2three]

They seem to be placing an over-emphasis on income tax. I'm sure it's nice in theory to live in a state without income taxes, but the state still needs money to run so they just make it in other ways... usually through property taxes, which can really hurt retired people on limited income who have lived in their houses for decades.

 

It's an interesting list though. I was surprised to see Illinois at #1. I didn't think that Illinois's economy was doing all that hot right now?

[justLisa]

We are number 2. The cost of living here is not low but I guess they say it's easy to make a living here.

[Crimson Wife]

I'm surprised that Washington, Massachusetts, and Virginia made the list as they are all very expensive places in which to live (at least the Seattle, Boston, and D.C. metro areas are).

 

A good friend of mine lives in Rochester, MN, and she's always lobbying to get me to move there because she says there are lots of good jobs but the cost-of-living is still reasonable. She and her hubby just bought a gorgeous house in a good neighborhood for a little over $200k.

[Mergath]

Our state made it on, which I'd have to agree with. Three or four years ago though, things here were horrible- there were no jobs anywhere. It's gotten a lot better since then, and there are tons of decent manufacturing jobs now, at least in our part of the state. And the cost of living here isn't bad.

[Susan in TN]

Doesn't surprise me that TN is ranked among the top. Seems every other week I hear of a new company relocating here - no state income tax is a big draw. Our local sales tax is a bit steep.

[In The Great White North]

They seem to be placing an over-emphasis on income tax. I'm sure it's nice in theory to live in a state without income taxes, but the state still needs money to run so they just make it in other ways... usually through property taxes, which can really hurt retired people on limited income who have lived in their houses for decades.

 

 

I took the "state tax rate" to be the overall tax rate (ie. including all taxes)

 

I know our property taxes, sales tax and income tax are all high.

[Denisemomof4]

I'm surprised that Washington, Massachusetts, and Virginia made the list as they are all very expensive places in which to live (at least the Seattle, Boston, and D.C. metro areas are).

 

A good friend of mine lives in Rochester, MN, and she's always lobbying to get me to move there because she says there are lots of good jobs but the cost-of-living is still reasonable. She and her hubby just bought a gorgeous house in a good neighborhood for a little over $200k.

 

I do agree with you, but I can definitely say the cost of living in CA is outrageous compared to here. Dh works in MA and we live in NH, although we could live in MA, just choose not to. We could NEVER afford a nice home in CA. I can't believe all the junk out there! My bf's mom's house is SO old and...... Not nice. It was appraised at 650k and is not a house I would ever want to live in, this in Novato. san Francisco would be out of reach. I also lived in San Jose.

 

16 years ago I bought a beautiful, eight uear old, spacious post and beam home (p&b homes cost significantly more than your average home) on 28.5 acres here in NH. A friend of mine paid the same price in PETALUMA, no less, for a 100 Year old TINY which needed a TON of work. It essentially had no yard.

 

Last time I visited I didn't notice a huge difference in food costs but honestly, I was vacationing so we ate out.

 

ETA: I guess none of the above matters since You were mentioning other areas, not CA, and CA is on the bottom 10 list, and I can understand why. It is beautiful, though! and I DEFINITELY prefer their summers. The humidity on the east coast Is THE WORST. :glare:

Edited September 27, 2012 by Denisemomof4

[freeindeed]

I can attest to the fact that Hawaii is the worst state. My ds20 is stationed there & the cost of living is outrageous. His wife posted a pic on FB of a bag of Doritos & it cost almost $6.:001_huh:

[Zebra]

Well, the worst states list doesn't surprise me. ;)

 

Me either :lol:!!!

[DianeW88]

Well, Utah made #8 on the overall 50 state list (for high wages), but unless I overlooked it, we weren't on the top ten list. Probably because I think our state income tax is too high. However, we do make a very good salary here and our cost of living is pretty low, so we've been very happy.

 

I grew up in Delaware and my father did VERY well there all his life.

 

My dh grew up in Denver, and we lived there for the first 12 years of our marriage. We did well, income-wise, and our state income tax was lower, but I felt our sales tax, auto insurance, utility bills (our water bill was RIDICULOUS...$300 a month in the summer), housing, and general cost of living were higher than Utah's, and so ultimately it was harder for us there.

[LibraryLover]

I have always loved VA, and here we go, another reason. Sadly, living there is never going to happen for me.

 

Interesting that MA is in the top 10, but neighboring RI and CT are not.

Edited September 27, 2012 by LibraryLover

[TravelingChris]

Our part of this state is good=lower than average unemployment rate and confirmed by signs and stories of people getting employed, considered to have a low tax rate, and relatively lower cost of living- housing is cheap here, including rentals

[LibraryLover]

Our part of this state is good=lower than average unemployment rate and confirmed by signs and stories of people getting employed, considered to have a low tax rate, and relatively lower cost of living- housing is cheap here, including rentals

 

 

Housing is insanely high in MA.

[Crimson Wife]

I grew up in Massachusetts, and while it's not Bay Area crazy expensive, it's still expensive compared to most places. One of the homes in the neighborhood where I grew up is listed for $555k according to Redfin. That's for a 2400 sq. ft. 4 BR house on 1 acre. The 3 most recent sales in that neighborhood were in the $520-$576k range. My parents downsized after they became empty nesters but their house is still worth $395k. Most places that would buy a McMansion rather than a small 3 BR home.

[LMA]

I'm surprised that Washington, Massachusetts, and Virginia made the list as they are all very expensive places in which to live (at least the Seattle, Boston, and D.C. metro areas are).

 

A good friend of mine lives in Rochester, MN, and she's always lobbying to get me to move there because she says there are lots of good jobs but the cost-of-living is still reasonable. She and her hubby just bought a gorgeous house in a good neighborhood for a little over $200k.

 

MA is not that expensive. D.C. is much more expensive and so is California. What people don't realize is that MA has Proposition 2 1/2, which limits the yearly raise of property taxes to 2 1/2 percent a year. All other major projects which require more taxes must be overridden by town residents in a special vote and a lot of them don't pass. This makes MA affordable. Income tax is 5.3% or so for the state rate.

[laughing lioness]

I'm really surprised to see SD on the worst states lists. The average income might be lower than other places but col is also low and there are JOBS here.

[Crimson Wife]

MA is not that expensive. D.C. is much more expensive and so is California. What people don't realize is that MA has Proposition 2 1/2, which limits the yearly raise of property taxes to 2 1/2 percent a year. All other major projects which require more taxes must be overridden by town residents in a special vote and a lot of them don't pass. This makes MA affordable. Income tax is 5.3% or so for the state rate.

 

Housing is very pricey, as I mentioned earlier in the thread. And I didn't even grow up super-close to Boston, but on the I-495 belt. The towns in the Rt. 128 belt are even that much higher. My dad grew up in Lexington, and the houses there are in the same price range as where we live here in the S.F. East Bay.

[FaithManor]

How did Michigan NOT make the worst states list???? Seriously, are we so bad now that we can't even be mentioned it's so embarassing? ;)

 

Faith

[Denisemomof4]

My sister has a large, 2700 s.f. Now 23 year old, very beautiful home in Uxbridge, MA. It has 5 or 6 acres. The last time it was appraised it came in at 300k. She is very close to Worcester, not sure how far away from Boston.

[LibraryLover]

I grew up in Massachusetts, and while it's not Bay Area crazy expensive, it's still expensive compared to most places. One of the homes in the neighborhood where I grew up is listed for $555k according to Redfin. That's for a 2400 sq. ft. 4 BR house on 1 acre. The 3 most recent sales in that neighborhood were in the $520-$576k range. My parents downsized after they became empty nesters but their house is still worth $395k. Most places that would buy a McMansion rather than a small 3 BR home.

 

 

Yes. Not as high as in CA, but high. You still can't get a shack here in a decent neighborhood for under 200k.

 

Although, we've been hard hit by the housing bust. A house near me sold for about 500k a couple of years ago, and I believe the sellers paid 750 for it. The 1.3 mil place down the road has been sitting on the market for 18 months. 15 years ago, there would have been a bidding war.

 

It's better for things to settle down, as those homes were ridiculously inflated. I do see a lot of new (large) homes going up. Something is happening here. It amazes me to see people building again...and they all seen to be 3k+ sq feet, 2-3 car garage homes. Some folks are doing well. The privae school in my small town is near capacity, and the tution is 24k/yr for a day school. Of course, the poor folks in the nearby city are not doing well, the schools are mostly sub-par, although there are a few gems.

Edited September 27, 2012 by LibraryLover

[justLisa]

I'm surprised that Washington, Massachusetts, and Virginia made the list as they are all very expensive places in which to live (at least the Seattle, Boston, and D.C. metro areas are).

 

A good friend of mine lives in Rochester, MN, and she's always lobbying to get me to move there because she says there are lots of good jobs but the cost-of-living is still reasonable. She and her hubby just bought a gorgeous house in a good neighborhood for a little over $200k.

 

Yes, it is high cost here. DH used to live near where you are now, in Pleasanton. We looked there and I nearly wet myself at the cost of housing.

 

Here, our home is around the 500k mark. When they were first building them they were higher. It is over 3000 square feet, 5 years old. We have a very small yard. We speak in terms of square footage not acreage :lol:

 

If you put our house on an acre you'd be looking at close to a million unless you want to live OUT as in way out.

[LibraryLover]

Housing is very pricey, as I mentioned earlier in the thread. And I didn't even grow up super-close to Boston, but on the I-495 belt. The towns in the Rt. 128 belt are even that much higher. My dad grew up in Lexington, and the houses there are in the same price range as where we live here in the S.F. East Bay.

 

 

Exactly. Weston, Brookline, Dover, Newton etc. all desriable, costly areas, rarely losting value. We have a friend in Brookline who bought a home in 1978 (just called her eta) for 50k. It is worth probably 2 million. It's a rare home- large and never converted into condos, large yard, garage (no overnight on-street parking in Brookline) well cared for, updated, legal attic rental etc. It could possibly be worth more than that. There would be a bidding war if it was put on the market, I'm sure.

Edited September 27, 2012 by LibraryLover

[Pawz4me]

They seem to be placing an over-emphasis on income tax. I'm sure it's nice in theory to live in a state without income taxes, but the state still needs money to run so they just make it in other ways... usually through property taxes, which can really hurt retired people on limited income who have lived in their houses for decades.

 

:iagree:

 

Property taxes, sales taxes, fees on this and that -- the state always gets their money. No-state-income-tax states don't impress me in the least.

[MrsBasil]

.

Edited May 16, 2016 by MrsBasil

[momma2three]

I took the "state tax rate" to be the overall tax rate (ie. including all taxes)

 

I know our property taxes, sales tax and income tax are all high.

 

 

Yes, but for several states they specifically mentioned the state income tax.

[QueenCat]

No state income tax here in TN. Property taxes are not high either. Lower than we paid in GA. Sales tax is a little high but not horrible (just under 10% with local municipality tax included). You get what you pay for though.... my parents pay higher property taxes but they get things like trash collection and sewer services from their town. If a dead animal is in the road, in my parents area, a govt entity picks it up. Around here, it just keeps getting run over until the vultures or the tires disintegrate it. Not pleasant when it's a large deer.

[8circles]

Considering the severe budget problems Illinois is having right now (to the point that state and local workers are afraid for their pensions) and the cuts in services that need to be done just to survive, I doubt the helpfulness of this list.

 

This & the fact that MI isn't on the worst-list tell me these lists aren't worth carp.

[Carrie75]

Funny, I have had 5 or 6 friends (and their families) leave southern CA for new jobs in other states, some listed on the best list. Makes me think we should move too. It's so expensive here. The most successful turnouts were WA, with a job at Amazon that popped up on LinkedIn, CO, and MD.

[momma2three]

No state income tax here in TN. Property taxes are not high either. Lower than we paid in GA. Sales tax is a little high but not horrible (just under 10% with local municipality tax included). You get what you pay for though.... my parents pay higher property taxes but they get things like trash collection and sewer services from their town. If a dead animal is in the road, in my parents area, a govt entity picks it up. Around here, it just keeps getting run over until the vultures or the tires disintegrate it. Not pleasant when it's a large deer.

 

See, 10% seems very high to me. Massachusetts was at 5% for decades and decades, and not too long ago pushed it up to 6.5%. 10% has to be one of the more expensive sales taxes out there, doesn't it?