10 cities where pay is high and cost of living is low
Seeking a place to live and work that'll make your dollar holler? Consider the following 10 cities, courtesy of the folks at CareerCast.com, whose just-released "BestPlaces to Live and Work" report identifies the locales where you can earn a decent income and enjoy a low cost of living.
Don't expect to find New York or San Francisco on this list. Unless you work in a high-paying tech or finance job, these cities are extremely pricey.
CareerCast came up with its ranking after tracking salaries for some 200 careers and weighing factors like the local costs of housing, groceries, transportation and health care against their national averages. Its sources included its Jobs Rated report, Payscale.com's Cost of Living Calculator and data from the Council for Community and Economic Research.
Of the 10 cities listed, eight had unemployment rates below the national average. Several of the cities had median household incomes below the national rate, but most had a lower cost of living, which helped balance things out.
Click ahead for a look at the best place to live and work, in alphabetical order.
Austin, Texas
- Percentage below the national cost of living: -6 percent
- Median household income: $63,603
- Unemployment rate: 2.9 percent
Columbus, Ohio
- Percentage below the national cost of living: -10 percent
- Median household income: $56,371
- Unemployment rate: 3.8 percent
Durham, North Carolina
- Percentage below the national cost of living: -8 percent
- Median household income: $51,988
- Unemployment rate: 4.2 percent
Forth Worth area, Texas
- Percentage below the national cost of living: 0 percent
- Median household income: $52,430
- Unemployment rate: 3.5 percent
Houston, Texas
- Percentage below the national cost of living: -1 percent
- Median household income: $60,072
- Unemployment rate: 4.8 percent
Lincoln, Nebraska
- Percentage below the national cost of living: -10 percent
- Median household income: $52,046
- Unemployment rate: 2.5 percent
Midland, Texas
- Percentage below the national cost of living: -3 percent
- Median household income: $77,574
- Unemployment rate: 4.3 percent
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
- Percentage below the national cost of living: -4 percent
- Median household income: $52,293
- Unemployment rate: 5.7 percent
Tucson, Arizona
- Percentage below the national cost of living: -2 percent
- Median household income: $45,856
- Unemployment rate: 5 percent
Wausau, Wisconsin
- Percentage below the national cost of living: -9 percent
- Median household income: $53,300
- Unemployment rate: 3.4 percent