Damek.

UPDATE: Really I probably shouldn’t be thinking about this too much. A) The potential move is 3 years away. Lots can change in 3 years. B) The cost of living index on this one website differs quite a lot from the cost of living given by another website, which lists San Francisco as a little cheaper than New York, and San Jose, for example, as almost half as expensive.

So I’ve been planning on going to grad school for science rather than education, with a focus on teaching at the community college level rather than teaching high school. In addition to this, I’ve pretty much fallen in love with the idea of using grad school as an excuse to move to California, preferably the San Francisco area.

Unfortunately, I’ve been under the delusion that the cost of living there would be better than here in New York City. I thought I’d looked at some data before and seen it as 2/3 as expensive.

Sadly, no.

Interestingly, though, everything really is a little bit cheaper, except transportation and housing, with housing being the huge spike driving up the average.

OK, well, I didn’t really want to live right in San Francisco, anyway. It’s too cold that close to the bay, anyway. OK, where else have I heard of that could be good?

San Jose? Much better, but still expensive on the housing side. That’s basically Silicon Valley, too, for whatever that’s worth.

Santa Cruz? A little worse than San Jose, but still better than the city proper.

Berkeley? No data on that website, but Oakland is nearby. Almost on par with NYC, but still with more expensive transportation and housing. And who wants to live in Oakland?

What’s left, that has data on that site? Stockton, way too far east. Merced, even further east & south.

Well, it all kinda ends up depending on what grad school takes me. I’d better get busy studying so I can impress someone enough to provide me with housing! Transportation I think will work itself out for better or worse.

(Oh, and I think it was Los Angeles I’m remember as being 2/3 as expensive as New York. But who wants to live in Los Angeles? I may as well live in Riverside.)