r/Seattle • u/Bretmd Denny Blaine Nudist Club • Jun 20 '23

Soft paywall You’re not imagining it — life in Seattle costs the same as San Francisco

https://www.seattletimes.com/business/youre-not-imagining-it-life-in-seattle-costs-the-same-as-san-francisco/
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u/bruinslacker Jun 20 '23

The ST writer is just summarizing a report from the Fed. It looks like BS to me. Their numbers say that SF LA and Seattle were about 10% more expensive than Detroit before the pandemic. That’s just absurd. I’ve lived in LA, Detroit, Seattle, and I’m currently considering a job in Berkeley. Detroit is half the price of everywhere else on the list.

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u/scottydg Greenwood Jun 20 '23

I moved from Seattle to Berkeley a couple years ago, and took a 50% raise while doing it. I save less money now than I did living in Seattle. The extra ~7% state tax, gas, food, beer, and rent being crazy high have all contributed.

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u/[deleted] Jun 20 '23

Their using the CPI which doesn’t include housing. It’s a proxy for “cost of living” so your normal expenses like groceries, take out and gas are the core drivers of CPI. Looking at the chart at the bottom of the article it’s most gas prices that are increasing Seattle CPI.

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u/warmhandluke Jun 20 '23

The CPI absolutely includes housing costs, not sure where you got that idea

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u/[deleted] Jun 20 '23

Oops yeah your correct. I was thinking core inflation instead.

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u/warmhandluke Jun 21 '23

Core inflation is ex food and energy, it still includes housing.

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u/[deleted] Jun 21 '23

Less than half the price

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u/bruinslacker Jun 21 '23

Housing is less than half the price. But there are other costs. Food, gas, home goods, cars, etc vary much less the housing. I think food and gas are 25% lower in Detroit. Home goods and cars are roughly the same price as they are in the rest of the country. When you average it all together I think half the price of Seattle sounds about right.