And this blog shows that you really shouldn’t use Krugman’s numbers either. The median home price in Trenton, New Jersey were $300K in 2008. In Austin, Texas, it was $188K. That’s about $8K less in mortgage costs per year in Austin compared to Trenton.
Also, in NJ, you would pay 5.525% state income tax or $2,718 out of that $49K, plus property taxes of about $10,000 for your $300K home ($4.10 per $100 assessed value, 86% assessment rate vs sales price). In Texas, you would pay no income tax and $3,500 in property taxes. In Trenton the sales tax is 6% and items are more expensive. In Texas, sales tax is around 8%, but food is not taxed and prices are lower, so the sales tax cancels out.
So:
NJ taxes: +$9,000
NJ mortgage: +$8,000
So if we take out taxes and adjust for housing, that median income in NJ drops from $49K to $32K compared to Texas. And I haven’t even included the fact that prices are generally lower here. So now does that $37K / yr in Texas look so bad?