A Sale of 2 cities: Web map and analysis: Compare prices and locations

[JosephKerski]

Folks:

This could connect well with geography, economics, and business discussions about the variability of the cost of
living by location, and why the cost varies.

http://blogs.esri.com/esri/gisedcom/2015/05/29/a-sale-of-two-cities/

“The
grass is always greener on the other side.  But how much more ‘green’ does
it take to live in San Francisco versus West Palm Beach?  Use this map to
compare the cost of living in your dream city.”

So reads the description to one of the maps currently in the
Esri “coolmaps” gallery, specifically, the map linked to the above essay. As shown
in this example, I used the map to compare San Francisco California to Las
Vegas Nevada.  San Francisco is more expensive in housing, utilities,
groceries, and health, while Las Vegas was more expensive only in transportation.
The mean cost of living among the 5 measures was 67% higher for San
Francisco.  This makes sense, given the high cost of housing that San
Francisco has long experienced.  San Francisco’s rapid transit and bus
system, combined perhaps with more people living in closer proximity to their
workplaces, made the transportation costs lower than in Las Vegas.