Last week New York-based asset manager AllianceBernstein Holding, looking to cut costs, said it was moving its corporate HQ to Nashville, a move that will shift over 1,000 jobs during the next several years. Eventually the company will relocate its finance, legal and sales and marketing teams, among other functions.
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Moving some or most workers out of New York and other expensive gateway cities is not a new thing. Salt Lake City, Jacksonville and Austin have all been recent recipients of relocating workers.
Companies will save on the moves. What about the Wall Street workers who are used to high wages but also high prices? Bloomberg crunched the numbers and determined the workers moving to Nashville will enjoy a greatly reduced cost of living, paying less for a wide variety of goods and services.
Housing is one of the signal differences between the regions. In New York, the median home price is $252/SF, while in Nashville, it is a little more than half that, at $141/SF.
For execs looking for high-end properties, a 5K SF residential unit on the Upper East Side might run $12M. For a similar-sized house in tony Belle Meade, a town tucked within Nashville that has the highest per capita income in Tennessee by far, expect to pay $3.25M. And it will come with a big yard.
The annual property tax on those properties: nearly $60K in New York, not even $14K in Belle Meade.
The annual fee for the private Horace Mann School in the Bronx? More than $48K. For the comparable Montgomery Bell Academy in Nashville? A little more than $27,200.
Being the larger city, New York has more dining options, but up-and-coming Nashville is no slouch when it comes to inventive food, and it costs a lot less.
A fancy dinner for two at Daniel in Manhattan, with its award-winning contemporary French cuisine and wine selection, will run a shade over $300. At the 404 Kitchen in the Gulch in Nashville, which offers modern takes on classic European cuisine, with an emphasis on local, seasonal fare, the bill will be about $150.
Whether relocating denizens of Wall Street will be able to adjust culturally to cities like Nashville is another matter, and beyond the scope of a cost-of-living analysis.
After all, some things aren't really comparable. Premium seats to a Broadway musical run over $280, while a premium seat at the Grand Ole Opry is a little less than $100.
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