Between $30,000 and $1,500,000.
Your $70,000 annual salary goes as far as
in Washington, DCWashington, DC charges 16% more for the same life
Matching your $70,000 lifestyle there takes about $60,200 here.
Based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Roanoke RPP 93.618, Washington, DC RPP 108.884.
Housing spotlight
That's $247,300 you wouldn't have to borrow.
About $1,238 less per month, before you've negotiated anything.
Down payment (20%): $109,021 there vs $59,561 here. You keep about $49,460 in cash.
The typical Washington, DC payment carries a $545,106 home here, nearly twice the typical local house.
Typical metro home values; principal and interest at 6.4%, 20% down.
What drives it
Cost of living and housing, side by side.
Roanoke sits 6% below the national average. Washington, DC sits 9% above it.
Time is compensation
That 22 is the metro-wide average and includes outlying commuter counties added to the metro in 2003. Roanoke city itself averages 19 minutes; Roanoke County 22 (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS).
From the Riverside medical campus: South Roanoke and Raleigh Court run about 5-10 minutes, Cave Spring and Hunting Hills about 15.
For context: the national average is 27 minutes. Even counting every outlying commuter, this valley beats it by five.
You'd get back ~105 hours a year.
That's 13 extra workdays of life, to spend however you want.
If your service takes call, a 20-minute radius from the campus covers essentially the whole valley, including everything above.
Metro averages: U.S. Census Bureau ACS. Neighborhood drive times are point-to-point estimates; check them on any map app.
State and local income tax
About $1,600 less in state taxes in Virginia each year.
Effective rates at this income, state plus local wage taxes. Estimates only, not tax advice.
The bottom line
A move to Roanoke leaves about $11,400 more in your pocket every year.
Same career. Same title. More life.
›How we calculate this
Salary equivalence uses BEA Regional Price Parities: what a dollar of your income actually buys in each metro, indexed to the US average of 100. Housing figures use typical metro home values with a 30-year fixed mortgage at 6.4% and 20% down for the principal-and-interest estimate.
State and local income tax is an effective-rate estimate on the salary you entered; it excludes federal tax, FICA, deductions, and credits. All figures are for comparison, not tax or financial advice.
Sources: U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis Regional Price Parities (2024); Zillow Home Value Index; U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey mean travel time to work; state departments of revenue.