Bang for your buck can be hard to find, especially in cities known for major technology sectors. Rent is often no picnic with all those high-faluting engineers, entrepreneurs, and sales whiz-kids running around. According to a 2015 Business Insider article, the median rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Silicon Valley was a whopping $2,300 per month – and believe me, it’s only gotten worse.

But not all hope is lost. If you’re willing to live away from the coast and/or temperate weather paradise – a tough sell sometimes, I realize – then you can find yourself in a great job market with favorable pay and low cost-of-living that leaves more in your wallet and less in your landlord’s pocket. Weighing the average annual pay for common IT jobs against median regional rent, Entrepreneur.com came up with this list of the top 10 cities for low rent and good pay:

1. Atlanta, GA.
2. Baltimore, MD.
3. Boulder, CO.
4. Chicago, IL.
5. Dallas, TX.
6. Denver, CO.
7. Minneapolis, MN.
8. Phoenix, AZ.
9. Portland, OR.
10. Washington, D.C.

Interested in the full breakdown of each city? Read the article at the link above.

I live in Dallas, TX, and can speak personally to it’s place on the list. Dallas is an employment boom town, especially in IT work – and rent is totally manageable, with pleasant and well-located living quarters available in abundance throughout the metroplex for prices affordable even to those on the lower end of the pay scale. As is true in any major city, rent skyrockets the closer you get to the city center (although is still low relative to many other cities) – but for those like myself who live on the onskirts, the relatively well-designed freeway system keeps traffic moving and minimizes the pain of commuting; certainly more so than the infamously congested freeways of Los Angeles or San Francisco.

If you’re an IT professional looking to strike up a homestead elsewhere in the USA, check out the list and give some of the selections a thought. The amount of cash you could stand to save may surprise you!

Categories: The IT Philosopher

Tags: IT Jobs, IT Professional, Money, Tips