OKC has the cheapest median rent among the 50 largest metro areas

[Bunty]

This article is dumb, because no place plays anywhere close to minimum wage (as in they pay way higher). The minimum wage is no longer something that needs to be discussed. Raising it would artificially raise prices on goods and services.

I'm not sure. In Arkansas the minimum wage is $11. Translated does that mean the price of a Big Mac in Little Rock is at least 50 cents higher?

[gjl]

Have you been in a McDonald's lately? They have probably 1/3 less employees working there. Last one I was in there was 1 cash register and no one working it. They did have 3 kiosks for self ordering. And yes the cost of Big Macs have gone up.

[Bunty]

To an extent. OKC has become a lot more desirable, but has also been able to keep growth reasonable (I say that, but OKC has increased in population 18%, per that NY Times article). It also started from a fairly low position. I do not believe anyone in their right mind thinks OKC is less desirable than Birmingham or Memphis, at least in my opinion.

Some people find Birmingham more desirable because it's greener, hillier with a much shorter drive to the beach where there are palm trees.

In a citi-data 2018 poll, three cities were named and asked which one you prefer. The cities considered were Oklahoma City, Birmingham and Memphis. The results were rather close, but Birmingham was no. 1 with 38%. No. 2 was Oklahoma City with 33%. No. 3 was Memphis with 29%.

[Edmond Hausfrau]

^

Things like having the cheapest housing help keep us in the same category as those cities in the minds of those we are trying to entice. The first thought it raises for most is 'why'?

And I've said it many times: the huge percentage of people moving here are from small towns in Oklahoma, not from out of state.

It's all well and good to have cheap housing, but Oklahoma has the highest homeowners insurance premiums in the country, largely due to weather. I think we are also in top 5 most expensive car insurance for similar reasons plus high numbers of uninsured motorists. It's great to have cheap stuff in Oklahoma and have low salaries because of low cost of living, but some of these costs are fixed and insurance premiums around this state are crazy.