Los Angeles lacks what most of the other cities competing for Amazon’s second headquarters have — affordable housing.
As speculation rages around Amazon’s 20 finalists, Redlands tech company Esri compiled an online story map that gives a visual suggestion of how cities compare in key areas, including affordability.
It shows that L.A. has less in common than the most of the other U.S. cities.
Here’s why.
Location: The most obvious difference between Los Angeles and the other metropolitan areas under consideration is that it’s on the West Coast, like Seattle, Amazon’s hometown. Thirteen of the other candidates are in a triangle formed by Chicago, Boston and Atlanta.
“There’s a heavy East Coast lean here,” noted Robby Deming, media strategy manager.
Affordability: Incomes in most of the cities range between $50,000 and $70,000 a year, and homes cost $100,000 to $300,000.
Los Angeles has a median household income of $55,528, according to Esri, but the median home value is $499,645. Esri estimates it would take someone nine years to buy in that market.
New York came in second with a $480,211 median home value. It would take someone eight years to buy there with a median household income of $60,108.
Esri charts show affordable cities as dots along a line. Big cities have bigger dots than the smaller ones.
L.A. appears as a big orange ball far above the line.
“The affordability index is very linear, even though the cities vary in size,” Deming noted in an email.
Other differences: With 7,219 people per square mile, Los Angeles had the second highest daytime density, after New York with its 13,005 people.
It had the second most developed land, 68.4 percent, after New York’s.
Esri didn’t include Toronto to avoid differences in data gathering in Canada that might distort the findings.
To get a true sense of the differences between the 19 candidates, Esri generated a 60-minute drive-time zone from a starting point within each location rather than using government statistical areas, according to global marketing strategist Helen Thompson.
That strategy shows the differences between areas that overlap, as do Washington D.C., Northern Virginia and Montgomery County, Va.
To see the interactive map, visit mediamaps.esri.com/AmazonHQ2_USFinalists/index.html
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