Locality Rates

Is it just me or do these make absolutely no sense. I'm in PUBNAT2 and got my letter today informing me that I will be at Scottsdale Airport. I went and checked the locality rate thinking it had to be pretty high and was amazed to discover that it was actually lower then Phoenix's locality rate. Here are some interesting facts about the two cities.
Phoenix
Median household income
(per year) $44,222
Median home price $164,097
Locality Rate for PHX 14.74
Locality Rate for DVT 13.18 (WTF these are in the same city?)
Scottsdale (rich high class suburb of Phoenix, frequently reffered to as Snottsdale)
Median household income
(per year) $70,575
Median home price $331,674 (Double that of Phoenix)
Locality Rate for SDL 13.18% (Lower then Phoenix)

Not to mention Scottsdale is a smaller Airport then Deer Valley. So seriously WTF, I might have to abandon my ATC ambitions because I'm going to get stuck in the same situation I have always been, working for low pay and having to have a long ass commute because I can't afford to live where I am going to work. Seriously the areas I can afford to live in are an hour+ commute each way. Even when I am at the top of my payband (level 7 facility, $65,400) I won't be able to afford to live close to work.

Who sets these rates? I seriously am going to write a nice long letter full of statistics to whichever agency is in charge of this.

Feel free to move this if I posted in the wrong forum.

dude trust me. all of us new hires are in the same situation. im pretty much living off of my gi bill money. cause my paychecks are gone to bills the second i get them.

From my understanding the locality rates have nothing to do with housing. It is based on the local job market in the area. Look at the home prices in Houston and check out their locality, but it is an oil rich town with a lot of decent paying jobs.

Yeah, from what I understand, its based more on cost of labor than cost of living.

the rates are set according to the cost of labor not the cost of living. that's why Houston, which has a relatively low cost of living, has a high locality pay. the government uses locality pay to compete with wages earned in the private sector in any given city. Houston has many space science firms (for contracting with NASA) and lots of wealthy oil company employees so the locality pay there is among the highest in the country. locality pay is determined by the Employee Cost Index which is set by the Bureau of Labor Statistics so that's who you should write your nice long letter to.

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carry on . . .

live somewhere else live Phoenix or Chandler and drive into Scottsdale. Scottsdale is the most expensive area to live up there.

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~controller since 99'

Even if it is based on wages, the median household income in Scottsdale is still almost double that of Phoenix. And yeah I could live in Phoenix or Mesa but that means I have a long ass commute to work which I really want to avoid. Right now it's looking like I have to take a paycut and increase my commute times to take this job. I'm going to go tour out there and talk with some of the controllers and get an idea where they live, what their commute times are etc..