Quote:
Originally Posted by M1EK
Cost of living basically follows disposable income in a lot of ways - especially in an area like San Antonio which can just sprawl at will. IE, expensive housing doesn't get built if people don't have jobs that pay enough to qualify for the mortgages.
Whether fair or not, the reputation of San Antonio around the country is that it's a 'poor' big city. And because it's grown relatively recently (compared to other 'poor' big cities like Detroit and New Orleans), it's out of luck - new teams go to areas where advertisers want to advertise to TV viewers with a lot of money - not people who have a bit left over because their housing is so cheap.
For instance, here's one chart which shows San Antonio's disposable income per capita at dead last among large metros. Kind of hard to google for this stuff; lots of irrelevant stuff in the results, but at least I found one.
Here's a better chart from Wikipedia, although huge.. San Antonio is pretty much the lowest big city in the list under per-capita income (#182); scores a bit better on household income (note difference vs. Miami-Ft. Lauderdale, which I would surmise is due to smaller households due to large population of retirees). |
The disposable income spreadsheet is 10 years old and San Antonio is a different place. I do, however, agree San Antonio is still seen as a big poor city. I do not agree that 39K in San Antonio is less buying power than 41k in Orlando,42k in Cleveland, Jacksonville, or Las Vegas, or 44K in Nashville or Saint Louis and this list can go on. I can't believe any logical person would so I believe the reality is quite different than the perception. I was also wrong in my previous post, disposable income is income after taxes or in most cases net pay. Discretionary income is what’s left after the fixed/variable costs of life (housing, food, energy/fuel, POOR CREDIT HABITS) and can be used for entertainment or savings. This is the income used to attend NFL games.
As far as home prices are concerned, they are cheaper in this region due to an abundance of semi-skilled labor, legal or not. The South-central Texas Labor force and it’s effect, past, present, and future, on the regions standard of living should be another thread. It is , however, closely related to this topic.