After college, I moved from New York to Texas because the South is cheaper. It was the only way to afford my postgrad life.

The author moved to Texas for cheaper housing after college.

Courtesy of Brant Eckert

After graduating with a bachelor's in computer science in 2023, a software company offered me an exciting job that paid $60,000 a year.The catch? I had to move away from home.I had grown up on Long Island all my life, but the company didn't have an office within commuting distance of my parents' house. Moving felt daunting. Moving across the country? Even more so.But I felt like I had no choice because of the difficult job market and the rising costs in New York, so I packed up and moved to Texas.The East Coast was nearly impossible to affordI did the math. The average rent for an apartment in most East Coast states is $2,000 to $3,000 a month.Over the course of a year, on average, that would be $30,000. This was half of my annual income — before accounting for any other expenses.New York State income taxes are also high, plus there's federal tax on top. Already, with back-of-the-napkin math, I found that I would be left with less than half of my annual salary before accounting for food, insurance premiums, utilities, and rainy-day savings.

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