Is Los Angeles underrated?

The discourse says yes, the prices say no

Before heading to LA last week, I was at an Econ Twitter conference and mentioned the upcoming trip to several people, most of whom remarked that in their view, Los Angeles is underrated.

I always enjoy LA when I visit, and it’s truly a city that contains multitudes in terms of the sheer range of neighborhoods that exist in and around the city. But I said I was skeptical of the underrated thesis because, on its face, Los Angeles is extremely expensive. And what’s particularly noteworthy about the high cost of LA living is that while there are absolutely plenty of rich people out there, it’s a distinctly less-rich city than a lot of the other very expensive American metro areas.

Looking at the National Low Income Housing Coalition’s annual report on this, they say the HUD fair market rent for a two-bedroom apartment in the Boston-Cambridge-Quincy housing market is $2,399 versus “only” $2,044 in the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale market. But the area median income for the Boston area i…