Who knows the best statistic on Cost of living between Chicago and New York? I am sure Chicago is cheaper, but how much? These two are obviously the happening cities. Of course for Energy Houston is upcoming too. Houston should be real cheap I guess. Some thoughts/info please.Thx

midwest? forget it!

One bedroom apt in Downtown Chicago rent - 1500 (with swimming pool, gym et all)One bedroom apt in Downtown NY rent - 2500 (Tribeca)

Enter your current income: $ Assuming $50,000 in Chicago for this exampleOf course living in Chicago suburb with 15 mile and 30 minute train ride or New Jersey city which might be closer to the office but transportation time about the same as Chicago, would alter the prices---esp. rent http://www.bankrate.com/brm/movecalc.as ... 0522527818 The equivalent income is $87,054.21 [in NY]. It will take a 74.11% increase to maintain your standard of living. Product Chicago IL New York (Manhattan) NY Difference HOME PRICE $360,750.00 $1,099,398.50 $738,648.50 PAYMENT+ INTEREST $1,643.75 $4,871.89 $3,228.15 APT RENT $1,439.00 $3,424.00 $1,985.00 TOTAL ENERGY $172.63 $235.78 $63.15 LIPITOR $116.46 $125.75 $9.29 OTHER ENERGY $113.53 $96.07 $17.46 DOCTOR VISIT $87.25 $105.71 $18.46 OPTOMETRIST $80.50 $71.33 $9.17 DENTIST VISIT $77.00 $97.86 $20.86 PART ELECTRICAL $59.10 $139.71 $80.61 BEAUTY SALON $45.33 $53.14 $7.81 VET SERVICES $42.25 $59.86 $17.61 WASHER REPAIR $36.33 $68.33 $32.00 WOMENS SLACKS $32.31 $42.71 $10.40 PHONE $29.15 $32.31 $3.16 MENS SHIRT $26.49 $33.28 $6.79 BOYS JEAN $18.82 $19.56 $0.74 HAIR CUT $18.14 $14.71 $3.43 PIZZA $10.75 $9.99 $0.76 TIRE BALANCE $10.00 $9.50 $0.50 NEWSPAPER $9.75 $35.15 $25.40 MOVIE $8.88 $10.42 $1.54 DRY CLEANING $8.59 $8.87 $0.28 BEER $7.87 $8.06 $0.19 T BONE STEAK $6.94 $12.01 $5.07 IBUPROFEN $6.07 $7.78 $1.71 WINE $5.68 $11.86 $6.18 BOWLING $4.53 $7.36 $2.83 CRISCO $4.48 $4.13 $0.35 CASCADE $4.35 $6.27 $1.92 PARMESAN CHEESE $4.22 $4.59 $0.37 POTATOES $3.60 $5.05 $1.45 SAUSAGE $3.50 $5.19 $1.69 GROUND BEEF $3.46 $3.73 $0.27 COFFEE $3.40 $4.15 $0.75 CEREAL $3.38 $4.21 $0.83 FROZEN MEAL $3.36 $3.79 $0.43 GASOLINE $3.04 $3.06 $0.02 2-PC CHICKEN $2.97 $3.00 $0.03 HAMBURGER SANDWICH $2.87 $3.23 $0.36 TOOTHPASTE $2.86 $3.67 $0.81 ORANGE JUICE $2.79 $3.59 $0.80 POTATO CHIPS $2.57 $3.12 $0.55 TENNIS BALLS $2.39 $3.61 $1.22 HALF GAL MILK $2.36 $2.27 $0.09 DOZ EGGS $1.94 $1.97 $0.03 PEACHES $1.93 $1.99 $0.06 SUGAR $1.91 $2.31 $0.40 KLEENEX $1.89 $2.33 $0.44 FROZEN CORN $1.64 $2.29 $0.65 BREAD $1.62 $1.64 $0.02 LETTUCE $1.58 $1.97 $0.39 FRIED CHICKEN $1.42 $1.55 $0.13 COKE $1.16 $1.59 $0.43 SWEET PEAS $1.10 $1.11 $0.01 SHAMPOO $1.10 $1.44 $0.34 TUNA $1.09 $0.95 $0.14 MARGARINE $0.98 $1.85 $0.87 BANANAS $0.67 $0.73 $0.06 Mortgage (%) 6.12% 5.86% 0.26

I have heard mixed things about Bankrate. BUt it gives some what of an idea. The bottom line seems to be that Chicago is cheaper by at least 20-30%. 100k in NYC --> 75-80k in Chicago??

hi,jfuqua, this website is really nice. do you, or anybody else know such a website for non-us cities like london, tokyo etc.

QuoteOriginally posted by: ra008 These two are obviously the happening cities. ThxSadly, Chicago is NOT a happeninng city any more, at least in terms of finance/quant jobs. Most banks moved away from chicago in the last 5-10 years. So, from the career-prospective viewpoint, NY is a better value for money (even if more expensive)V

There seem to be alot of sites out there that give some information. Below is one. You are probably best off comparing several sites. A number of them seem to be related to employment agencies and so may just be hooks to get you in. Periodically newspapers also publish results.I suspect the biggest problem with the surveys is the rent assumption. If you want to live IN the city, you will pay alot more for rent and auto insurance than if you live in many suburbs of the city--of course then transportation cost [and public vrs. private] could be meaningful.There are many jobs in large cities, even Chicago, but being at the right place at the right time and the number of people looking are big factors. Probably NY [and suburbs] and London are the two places were there are multiple jobs available and publizied at any given time---and if you lose the job [or jobs disappear] there are always other firms within shouting distance.http://www.citymayors.com/economics/exp ... ties2.html One of the benefits of NY is not only the number of firms but the close location of universities [NYU and Columbia] and firms that have seminars [good for not only learning but networking]. I don't know about the firms or schools in London having the same opportunities [seminars and networking]---looks like Kings College and Imperial do]--but it appears if you can travel to Cambridge, Oxford, Warwick meet that need. With Chicago you do have seminars at IIT [Tomasz Bielecki], Northwestern Univ. [Industrial Engineering & Management Science]--depending on the seminar organizer for the year---and some at University of Chicago [MathFin program]---in 98/99 they had two to three speakers per week! From having co-hosted quant. finance seminars in the Loop in the late 90s, I know that even then it was difficult to get more than 20-30 people for a monthly seminar---and that was probably the boom period of FE in Chicago. I am speaking about quant. finance seminars, not business school Finance departments, which all major schools have a variety of topics.

Is CIMS's finance seminars usually held after 5:00PM to let people in Wall Street give a talk?

The seminars at CIMS start at 17:30 every Thursday, so yeah, I guess a lot of the people working not in academia can afford(time-wise) to come there.