Phila a tough place to save money: report

Philadelphia ranked 4th-worst among 18 large U.S. cities as a place to "build wealth," according to Bankrate.com, which tracks credit cards and other financial services. Low-tax Houston and Washington, D.C., depressed Cleveland and Detroit, and high-opportunity New York (despite its high-cost housing) are the cities where it's easiest for the most people to set part of their income aside (for play, education, retirement). San Diego, Phoenix and Los Angeles are the only big cities where the costs of daily living make it tougher to save than in Philly. Read survey results here.

What drags Philadelphia down the most: it is the second-most-expensive city to live in, according to Bankrate, if you consider the impact on "savable income" of personal taxes (such as Philadelphia's notorious wage tax and high sales tax) combined with the retail cost of food and other "necessary expenses." (Washington DC and Baltimore ranked lowest for those expenses, according to Bankrate.)

But Philadelphia also ranked below-average in all other categories Bankrate considered: job market; housing market; personal-debt levels -- and access to financial services, where Philadelphia, the nation's long-ago banking center and still home to hungry competition among big out-of-town banks with too many branches and not enough loans, ranks just 13th-best.