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Relocation Info |
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If you are considering relocating for a new position, especially
to another state or location which you are not familiar, you have
an interest in understanding the buying power of your dollar in
city or location to which you are planning to move.
According to Dowden & Company a recent study by one of the nation's largest coast-to-coast
moving companies shows that 53 percent of job candidates who reject employer relocation offers do so because of
the failure to reconcile cost-of-living differences with compensation levels.
There are a number of factors that enter into the calculation of
a realistic cost-of-living difference at the new geographical location,
the biggest variable typically being the cost of housing. In order
to get the most accurate figure, try to be as specific as possible
with respect to both the new and old location. The old adage "apples
to apples and oranges to oranges" applies to real estate costs in
particular. For example, zip codes immediately adjacent to each
other can yield wildly different results, Rancho Santa Fe (median
home price approximately $1.2 million) and San Marcos (medium home
price approximately $230 thousand) in San Diego County is a good
example.
Other factors to consider include
the cost of utilities and transportation in each area. If you have to commute a long distance in one area in order
to be able to find affordable housing, you obviously have to factor that in to your calculations.
We took a look
at several of the most popular salary calculators on the Internet and found it interesting that they yielded very
different results.
We used an example of a candidate who is currently earning $100,000 in Chicago but is
considering a new position in Atlanta. His $100,000 salary in Chicago is equivalent to the following salaries in
Atlanta:
Homefair.com: $73,490
VirtualRelocation.com: $69,277
Datamasters.com: $93,636
There is a $24,000+ difference between the three calculators!
Outlined below are brief descriptions of each site:
Homefair.com http://homefair.com/calc/salcalc.html
Homefair.com is the provider of the ubiquitous Salary Calculator. With it, one can compare the cost of living in hundreds of U.S. and international cities. The cost of living data represented is assembled by the Center for Mobility Resources. The formulas are based for the most part on those adopted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The five major categories for U.S. and Canadian data are housing costs (33%), utilities (8%), consumables (16%), transportation (10%), and other services (33%).
VirtualRelocation.com http://www.virtualrelocation.com
This is the "Internet's First Moving & Relocation Mega-Site" containing
over 150,000 links to relocation services and related informational
pages. They factor in housing costs, property and income taxes,
auto insurance, electricity costs, rent and other variables, what
salary is required to break even, weather, crime, median income,
and other quality of life factors.
Datamasters.com http://www.datamasters.com/
Datamasters.com includes U.S. cost-of-living comparisons for 399
U.S. job markets. Powered by Dowden & Co, they specifically take
into account the added impact of state & federal tax variables when
combining taxes + goods & services.
Links to other relocation resources:
Real Estate and Mortgage Broker specializing in San Diego and North San Diego County
Robert J. Mason
Rancho Bernardo Mortgage & Real Estate
http://www.robertjmason.com/
Robert@robertjmason.com
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