Last week, the National Association of Home Builders (with the help of Wells Fargo) released an index of the least and most affordable cities in the U.S. I wasn’t exactly surprised to learn that the top ten least affordable cities were mostly on the East or West coast:
- New York City, NY
- San Francisco, CA
- Nassau/Suffolk Counties, NY
- Los Angeles, CA
- Miami, FL
- Santa Ana, Anaheim, Irvine, CA
- El Paso, TX
- Newark, NJ
- Honolulu, HI
- Seattle, WA
However, the list did get me thinking. You can read it one of two ways — assuming that you’ve set yourself up for some sort of traveling work. First, that list could be a list of places to avoid. If you’ve streamlined your travels so that you can work a minimal amount and still afford to be on the road, expensive cities like San Francisco could break your budget. It might be better to stay in some of the cities that made the NAHB’s list of most affordable cities, like Cleveland, OH or Indianapolis, IN if you’re planning on staying stateside. (And yes, there are plenty of entertaining and adventuresome things to do in the Midwest).
On the other hand, that list of expensive cities could double as a list of places you want to visit. It’s certainly not an impossible option: there are plenty of people who work remotely and live somewhere expensive, like Seattle. It just means that your business or job needs to be at a point where it can comfortably support you no matter your expenses — and hopefully without a time commitment that doesn’t allow for exploring and adventures.
The information shared by the NAHB and Wells Fargo is based on housing prices: it’s honestly not the best indicator for a modern day nomad, given that not so many of us have an interest in actually purchasing a house. However, it is an index that is easy to compare across geographical regions. You can take a look at the numbers yourself on the NAHB’s website.
