Cost-of-Living

Living in paradise, however, is not necessarily cheap. The price of goods in Melbourne (and Australia in general) is a bit odd to figure out. CDs for example, seem extraordinarily expensive. After sticking my nose in three stores, the best prices I've found for the latest CDs from Wilco and Badly Drawn Boy are $30 and $32, respectively. Even after adjusting for the exchange rate, that amounts to about US$24-26 for a CD. This is, of course, absurd, and thus I'm considering holding off buying any new music until my next visit to the United States.

Coke is similarly expensive, but beer is rather cheap (still haven't found anything to rival a $3.75 pitcher of PBR, however). The cost of food is generally the same as in the US, although dining out can get pretty expensive fairly quickly, particularly if one is getting paid in AUS$ (which I am). From what I hear, housing has really taken off over the past couple of years, but it's still about 25-30% less than in Washington, DC - factor in the exchange rate and it gets even better. The big shocker comes from big-ticket items, particularly cars. Here, the weakness of the AUS$ becomes an issue. A US$24,000 car in the U.S. will cost you about AUS$30,000 in OZ, which starts to hurt, particularly given that Australians don't get paid more to compensate for their weak currency. But tiny little cars are much more prevalent here than in the U.S. (e.g., the Smart). And with the high quality of public transportation in Melbourne, I'm holding out as long as I can.