Where's the best pay for RN's WHEN you also consider cost of living?

Nurses General Nursing

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I looked at this sometime ago and concluded that it might be Houston Texas, or Indianapolis IN. both of which offer common base RN pay rates of around $20.00 plus per hour ( and in the case of Indy I know several new grads who started at close to $30.00 with night/weekend differential). Furthermore, both cities offer nice one bedrooms for about $600.00 per month (add about $150 per bedroom) and you can buy a decent home for about 100K (bought a nice duplex in Irvington just south of Washington St and just East of Emerson in Indianapolis for 70K four years ago). Let's say we divided the average one bedroom rental price (in this case $600.00) by the average, starting salary for nurses (in this case let's say $20.00) that gives a rent to hourly ratio of 30 to 1. Plus, demand for RN's is high enough that you should be able to find a job in no more than say a month (sooner and for more money at home health agencies). However, Houston probably wins because according to salary.com it has an even lower cost of living than Indy. In addition, it has the added advantage of NO state income tax. Plus, I suspect due to it being a larger city that it also has more job opportunities (especially with higher rates of immigration that probably help boost demand for health care). Is there anyplace that might compete with Houston? If not I say God bless Texas!

Who else might be competitive or even better than Houston or Indy? Also, consider that places like Phillie, or the Apple would probably have ratio's well over 40 to 1 even with starting salaries over thirty per hour because of the high rent.

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I think there are other factors you have to look at also. Houston has a lot of smog. I'm Texas born but live in a very expensive place. I just bought a nice little place for $305K and it needs a little fixing up. But the fact that I look at the ocean every day and great sunsets, plus I tool around in slippahs (toe thongs) and tank top and shorts and feel the great trade winds blowing up my shorts just kinda makes me not really care about anyplace else! :chuckle

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I think there are other factors you have to look at also. Houston has a lot of smog. I'm Texas born but live in a very expensive place. I just bought a nice little place for $305K and it needs a little fixing up. But the fact that I look at the ocean every day and great sunsets, plus I tool around in slippahs (toe thongs) and tank top and shorts and feel the great trade winds blowing up my shorts just kinda makes me not really care about anyplace else! :chuckle

Zenman, you've got me all wrong! Just read my post in he Hawaii forum. I'm the guy who would literally camp out in a tent to live on Oahu (If I could find any private campgrounds that would let me rent year round, and my wife wouldn't leave me, which she unquestionably would!). In any case a big part of the reason that we went back to school in our early 30's was so that we might one day live in Hawaii (preferably not in a tent). I was stationed there in the Navy, and loved it despite earning only about $800.00 per month at the time (then again sleeping on a minesweeper bunk is not far from living in a tent).

No, I am approaching the question from a sincere desire to know the answer not so much for my own sake, but for others (although we may end up living in Texas for a few years to save up for Oahu. I would like to have at least 100K in the bank when we move).

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Specializes in Critical Care, Emergency, Education, Informatics.

Don't forget rural america. In some palces you're still making the $20-$25/hr and can buy a 1500-2000 sqare foot house for $50-$60K. Yes you do have to drive 30 miles to the nearest WalMart, but I had to do that when I was in the city. (and we have an average of 1-4 nurse patient ratio) which def makes things even nicer.

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Don't forget rural america. In some palces you're still making the $20-$25/hr and can buy a 1500-2000 sqare foot house for $50-$60K. Yes you do have to drive 30 miles to the nearest WalMart, but I had to do that when I was in the city. (and we have an average of 1-4 nurse patient ratio) which def makes things even nicer.

The problem is that things can change very quicky. I moved to a semi-rural area last year that was advertised as one of the cheapest areas to live in California. (Semi-rural in that you didn't have to drive 30 miles to get to the nearest Wal-Mart).

At the time it was. But in just one year housing prices jumped 65 percent. Now you have to drive at least another 30 miles to get the cheaper housing prices, but there aren't nearly as many nursing jobs.

So, it can be a tricky situation.

:clown:

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Your point about housing prices jumping is excellent especially if you are renting. IF, you owned then the value of your own house would help you keep pace with the increasing costs (since your house would in theory be worth 60% more too). In addition, there are certain areas (Oahu, and New York city come to mind) where rents while high, are not as high as you would predict based upon the sky-high cost of property (even without considering rent control as you have in many parts of NYC). Consider Oahu, where you would be hard pressed to buy a modest house under $300,000. You would predict that rents would be at least $2,500 to $3,000 (a rough approximation for rents normally is $100.00 per month for every ten thousand in property value so around here an $80,000.00 dollar house probably rents for about $800.00). However, you can rent a half-way decent one bedroom in the $1,200- $1,500 hundred range in many parts of Oahu ( still very high but less than what you would expect from the cost to own.)

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Specializes in Med/Surg.

I live in Indianapolis, and oh the RN money is GOOOOOOD!!! Motivated me enough to return for my ASN.

:) Kacy

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Zenman, you've got me all wrong! Just read my post in he Hawaii forum.

Ok, check my reply in Hawaii forum.

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No, Roland, not Texas!!!!

Read KacyLynns post. The midwest has great salaries and all 4 seasons!

You'll love it there.

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I'm still a student but from what an instructor told me, LPN's in Phoenix usually start around $19-$20 and hr. RN's can make excellent money, especially when you factor in night/weekend differentials. I think salary.com placed the average RN here in the 50K range but I don't think that is for per-diem, travel nursing or agency.

COL in Phoenix is also great and it's a small city, I think.

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I'm still a student but from what an instructor told me, LPN's in Phoenix usually start around $19-$20 and hr. RN's can make excellent money, especially when you factor in night/weekend differentials. I think salary.com placed the average RN here in the 50K range but I don't think that is for per-diem, travel nursing or agency.

COL in Phoenix is also great and it's a small city, I think.

I have heard however that Phoenix is also rather expensive. Do you have an estimate for the cost of a good one bedroom rental so that we could calculate or "nursing power index."

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Here's a link that where yo can punch in your salary for where you live and then compare it to where you want to move.

http://houseandhome.msn.com/pickaplace/comparecities.aspx?FS=WY&selFS=WY&selTS=NV&selFC=0&selTC=2&PFC=St.%20Louis&PTC=Carson&EarningFromCity=50000&PFS=MO&PTS=NV

It compares alot of different factors as well: schools, crime, climate...

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