Raleigh's an expensive place for a yuppie

Locality.com, a search engine that compares prices for yuppie services nationwide, ranked Raleigh as the fifth most expensive for yuppie services among the nation's top 30 cities.

Posted 8:37 p.m. Feb 2, 2014 — Updated 4:39 a.m. Feb 3, 2014

RALEIGH, N.C. — If you’re a yuppie looking for a home in Raleigh, expect to pay a lot for yoga classes and other things yuppies like, according to locality.com.

The website, a search engine that compares price and other factors for yuppie services, ranked Raleigh as the nation’s fifth most expensive place for such commodities. It used unique pricing data from one million local businesses nationwide to create a Yuppie Price Index – an economic indicator tracking the annual cost of typical yuppie services in the top 30 U.S. cities.

A yuppie, according to the website, is a young, urban professional.

Typical yuppie services include haircuts, blowouts, manicures, massages, eyebrow waxing, dry cleaning, dog boarding, gym memberships and yoga classes.

“Laundry and dry cleaning, hair and even yoga prices are below the national average,” the website said about Raleigh. “However, pricey gyms and beauty services like massages, facials and manicures added up.”

San Francisco, Denver, Washington D.C. and Phoenix ranked above Raleigh. Cities more commonly known as expensive places to live, such as Miami (9), Los Angeles (11), Chicago (12) and New York City (13), ranked lower.

Charlotte was among the most affordable cities for yuppies, ranking 15th, according to the website.

Raleigh’s ranking came as a surprise to Edgar Haren, who has lived in San Francisco and Houston - ranked as the second most affordable yuppie city.

Haren, who works for Lenovo, moved into The Hue, a luxury apartment complex on Hargett Street, in October.

He believes Raleigh is closer to Houston when it comes to yuppie expenses.

“We wanted to be closer to a lot of the nightlife,” he said about moving to downtown Raleigh. “There’s a lot of great restaurants around here as well as, of course, Fayetteville Street. That’s what’s really cool. The Flying Saucer is right there. It’s a great pub and The Pit is right down the road as well so it’s pretty convenient.”

The ranking also came as a surprise for Bonnye Talbot, who lives and works in downtown Raleigh.

“Really? I don’t think that’s right,” she said. “I have friends that live in Baltimore and San Francisco. We’re cheap. We’re exceptionally cheap living here. For services? Oh yea.”