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These Are America's 10 Most And Least Expensive Cities (And The 361 Cities Inbetween)
Recently we showed data breaking down of not only the states that have the highest and lowest state tax rates, but also which states are considered the most and least expensive to live in, based on regional price parity data as calculated by the BEA. Of course, the problem with that approach as anyone who has lived in Manhattan compared to upstate New York will know, is that state level data is largely useless when there are extensive price differentials within any given state.
Which is why to drill down on state-level disparities, here is a full breakdown of regional price parities, again using BEA data, this time at the Metro State Level, which shows for example that it is over 30% more expensive to live in New York, NY (which is the second most expensive city in the US after Honolulu) with a regional price parity index of 122.2, than in Utica, NY, which is at 93.0.
First, here are the 10 most expensive cities/MSAs to live in the US:
And, at the other end, here are the 10 cheapest cities and MSAs:
In summary, very much like extensive wage and price differentials within the European "Union", this latest data shows that it is about 54% more expensive to live in America's most expensive city, Honolulu, than to live in what according to the US government is the cheapest city in the US - Danville, IL.
As the US consumer retrenches even further, and is forced to minimize spending to previously unseen levels, we expect to see increasing migration away from America's more expensive cities, into the one at the bottom end of the list of 381 cities and MSAs ranked below.
Full list of all US states ranked from most to least expensive (via the WSJ):
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I traded down and moved from the 50's to the 230's about ten years ago.
It's allowed me to get off the hamster wheel, make less money, live at my means half the year, and below for the other half. Privacy, security, space, room to grow food, and fresh food over the end of the boat.
Locals are pleasant, mind their own business, and have excellent aim. No keeping up with the Jones' bullshit, no carjacking, gangster thugs, or home invasions.
The practicality and logistics for some makes it difficult to do the same, however, if you have the ability to forego dollars for peace and security I'd highly recommend you consider the option. My quality of life has increased dramatically, and I wish the same for all present here.
Final goal is to get my kid out of CA, but I expect it will be a decision of necessity rather than simple choice sooner rather than later. GLTA
My goal is to get off the hamster wheel as well. I live in a #173 area and make a good living. Working on a plan that might involve some rental properties and a smaller, maintenance-free house. I have a wife and 4 children where 1 has 2.5 years of college left. Have no debts and a nice stash which I am building on. I am jealous of Mr. P, the expat in Vietnam, but hey we all made our choices :)
Joel Skousen's "Strategic Relocation" is an excellent resource in grading regions, states, and cities across America to relocate to based on tons criteria other than just cost of living. Choose wisely and use his book as the bible of relocation data. Highly recommend the book and the free movie as well that goes with the book:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzjm9MJFSA8
http://infowarsshop.3dcartstores.com/Strategic-Relocation-North-American-Guide-To-Safe-Places-BOOK_p_439.html
Nice to see that my relocation city is below the mid-range on this list, but that was really not even in my top 5 reasons to choose that location after deeper research utilizing Skousen's vast amount of data in his book.
Or use this handy no-political-correctness cheat sheet:
1) Do I speak or can I learn the main local language?
2) Do I physically resemble the majority of the local population?
3) Will ideological and cultural differences be significant?
4) Is there good arable land for sale? Is there abundant rain and sources of fresh water? Is the area good for fishing, hunting, trapping, breeding? Will the climate be hellish if modern comforts disappear?
5) Is this place surrounded by difficult geography, such as mountains, lakes, marshes, valleys? Is it connected to other settlements by navigable waterways? Is or was it historically part of any significant trade routes?
6) Does the local economy NOT rely mostly on civil service or government contracts, service jobs, major corporations, (im)migrant labor, and/or e-commerce?
7) Is the percentage of the population occupied in and knowledgeable about trades and/or agriculture and/or animal husbandry in the double digits? Is the local welfare population low to nonexistent? Is the demographic structure NOT a disaster?
8) Are there things like time banks, co-ops, farmer's markets, flea markets/swap meets, etc.
9) Is this place far from state capitols and other major cities, military and government complexes, state prisons, nuclear power plants, chemical plants, etc.?
Modify your own criteria as needed.
There's not any perfect place. There used to be many livable places in America.
Unfortunately one has to play the game in this declining empire. Keep one foot in, one foot out.
I grew up and still live middle class in Texas, but, the good days are gone. Everywhere is crowded, everybody seems to be struggling.
By the way, Texas it not becoming whiter, and it's not becoming more conservative (just the opposite). Make the decision for yourself whether this is good or bad, but at least know what you are up against.
http://www.tothepointnews.com/images/stories/adams-onis_treaty.jpg
http://cubelranch.com/images/1819ViceroyaltyNew_Spain.png
I too lived within former New Spain for quite some time. I don't out much hope for it, and that has nothing to do with the demographics or ethnic composition. Basically, there's just not enough water to support even a fraction of its modern population, industry, and ranching, going forward. That and for the most part the climate sucks and land is not arable. In Arizona they are bleeding the aquifers dry and drawing down the Colorado each year just so every McMansion can have a picture perfect lawn. And when/if the grid ever goes down, just like Louisiana before Katrina, everyone who can afford to will get the hell out. 100 degree bone-dry summers are just not something most humans alive today would care to put up with.
"As the US consumer retrenches even further, and is forced to minimize spending to previously unseen levels, we expect to see increasing migration away from America's more expensive cities, into the one at the bottom end of the list of 381 cities "
People don't migrate to cities because they have low property values, they move to cities that have jobs.
Not true. I recently sold my condo in San Diego and moved to Chattanooga TN, where with the same money, I bought a house in the city, a mini farm in the country and a rental property that is now paying income. Oh and TN is not just cheap, it is beautiful! The strangest part was that before I left SD, i bumped into my neighbort down the hall who I had never met or talked to before. He was also selling his apartment and moving to... Chattanooga! Bizarre! but he used the same logic to stretch his retirement funds.
People move to the expensive cities because there are jobs there. Retirees typically like to move back to their hometown at retirement rather than picking from a list of cities with the lowest cost of living.
I assume you plan on ruining Tennesee with your bullshit California values and election choices?
Ruin your election choices? Prince Gore is a product of Tenn election choices... Reagan from CA.
I rest my case.
Nice comeback.
niether are worth bird shit. one is brain dead from birth and the other was brain dead in office, the first evidence that the media age reduced the requirement for potus to good acting.
Ain't no place I'd rather be.
Tennessee is a great place. I moved away last year to Arizona, which is also great, but I do miss home.
This is not true. People are moving to Arkansas (4th cheapest on the list) due to its low costs. We're being inundated by people who have no jobs and it's already ruining our infrastructure. We're getting folks from across the nation, mostly memphis, the bootheel, and mississippi, but a smidgen of folks from everywhere.
We do have jobs and I believe we've been adding them since the downturn, but our rate of population growth is dramatically exceeding job creation. We have a very broad economy, due in part to incredibly cheap utility costs. I believe the city owns part of a regional power plant and passes the savings on to residents and industry looking to make a home. The city also bends over backwards to give sweetheart deals to industry (we got close to getting a toyota plant a few years back) with financing or anything else it would need. We're also geographically in a strange position because we're the only decent sized town for 60+ miles in any direction and people travel here from everywhere to shop, get medical attention (two very large regional hospitals), go to college, etc. All of this grinds to a halt at $4 gas though (did the last time anyway and I think $3.50 gas is starting to eat into the city)... of course, $3 gas is a concrete shoe to the entire nation's economy, but I digress.
The median household income here is ~$45k, which is sufficient to have a reasonably nice lifestyle and a 3/2 ~1600 sq ft, new construction, w/ a couple of rugrats, two decent cars, and a yearly family vacation within the country. There actually is a middle class here, albeit grinding itself out of existence due to debt load. Income amounts that so low they would require you to fellate clowns in the park to supplement in larger cities are more than sufficient to live a generically solid life here.
PS, we're in the "flat lands." If you want to move into the ozarks and play around at the lakes or hit up our world famous trout rivers or jump on the energy/nat gas bandwagon, then I would suggest playing deliverance over and over again until you convince yourself it's a bad idea. They don't take to outsiders very kindly.
Most of Arkansas jobs growth is coming from oil and gas fracking afaik. Arkansas may be 4th cheapest on that list but if you factor in property taxes, State income taxes, State sales taxes and Arkansas's very low wages, AR is fairly expensive.
This list does not include property taxes, State and local income and sales taxes. The list focuses on food, energy, medical care, apparel, shelter such as home prices and rents.
What do you expect from the Bureau of Economic Analysis? Economic analysis?
Yep, the offshore jobs have moved onshore.
$3.50 gas? San Diego gas has popped to $4.50 in the past month. Still plenty of drive happy Angelenos down here on the weekends, too, but $5.50 will slow it down.
It's expensive to live in Bridgeport CT and Newark NJ?
I would rather move my family to Fallujah Iraq than those two shit holes.
Consider offshore. If I was 30 I'd move to Vietnam and make a ton of money! They know how to run a country. Nobody fucks with you. You keep ALL the proffits and the women are hot! Me sooooooo horny baby!
ah yes young hot pussy!
Tylers, can we expect a piece on the Siemens/GE/Alstom developing story and the political implications for that still pending us-eu free trade agreement?
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/2d8d4360-cdee-11e3-9dfd-00144feabdc0.html
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB1000142405270230393940457952721419...?
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2014-04-25/ge-executives-to-meet-with-f...
Dammit Tyler, I don't want all those people in CA moving here.
Never Fear. Sub-Prime lending will keep CA a Paradise!
And FL too.
Sub prime was never an issue in Florida. What caused the last bust was property speculation. Back in 2004, one lot on a canal in Cape Coral sold 31 times in less than 60 days. In a couple of instances, the same principals was selling the lot back to each other in a classic game of hot potato. People were buying homes and lots site unseen, and builders were building homes without any orders, but on speculation of buyers {of which there were plenty. The flipping was unreal. The premier luxury builder down here at the time, WCI {which I shorted into the dirt} went bust. Their stock price went from $55 a share to O in less than eight months. Carl Ican offered them $14 a share, then upped it to $21, and was STILL REFUSED BY THE BOARD. What idiots. Carl almost bought a pig in a poke!
But there is no action in Danville... Cow tipping only fun the first time..
Danville is both depressed and depressing. Went there to have a look awhile back when it was in the news for having the lowest housing prices in the US. There's a reason for that. All the industry left town for parts south and (far) east some years ago. The only one who seemed to be doing well was the local "pharma rep" (meth dealer) who was cruising around town in an H2 with a drugged out ho in tow...everyone else we saw there looked like neo-FSA zombies.
Much better Smolensk.
An area's costs largely reflect the populations willingness to pay for it. The wealthy like being around other wealthy folks, as they don't like being reminded of where they came from or might soon return. But primarily it is where the money and power is. The progressives need this as much if not more than the conservative profit loving cretins. In a free market economy, wealth would inspire others to endure hardships, such as a high cost of living, in the hopes of eventual success for themselves. Increasingly, in today crony markets, those who find themselves trapped in a shrinking middle class look for escape routes as they see no future where they are. They leave if they can or eventually find themselves as dependents upon the very system that brought them to their knees. This is making the wealth disparity even more obvious, which progressives will use to their benefit, even if they are largely responsible. As we know, regardless of consequence, they are doing it for the children.
Laughable.
San Francisco - Hayward? Sort of like combining the Upper East Side of Mahattan with the Bowery
Santa Cruz - Watsonville more expensive than SF? LOL^^X
New York City, Newwak, Jersey City? Sure, Wrap 'em up with a big red bow. (That's better than lumping upstate NY with NYC?
Geez, Tyler, we can go to THE ONION for stuff like this.
Well heck, the "expensive" chart is of course misleading, there's not even a 5% difference between Honolulu and Santa Rosa, yet just between neighborhoods in Los Angeles the same little old house on the same tiny lot might cost $200k or $2m, and a modestly larger or newer house in the better neighborhood might be $4m (nobody has much bigger lots!), one may have an old pickup and an older Kia, the other a new Tesla, new Porsche Cayenne, and a new SL550 in the garage. One eats a $5 lunch at MickeyD's, the other leaves a $10 tip for his $50 meal.
Food and energy costs are much higher in Honolulu. Utilities alone are probably triple while food costs are high because many grocery items come from the mainland.
Yep. It's not just food. 90% of all goods are imported to Hawaii. By ship. That takes oil. And the electricity comes from oil, too.
Very expensive.
Those very same differences are in Honolulu.
I have no idea how any Illinois city our town could end up on the least expensive list. If you live and work in Illinois, you are paying some of the highest state income taxes in the entire country. There are multiple layers of "local" government and expensive yet low quality public school systems to support. Plus the various law enforcement agencies are always implementing new and creative (shady) ways of collecting moar revenue so that they can sustain themselves; never mind "public safety". Sorry but no amount of massaging or polishing can make the Illinois turd shine.
When I lived in Illinois (40 years ago) you had Chicago ... and the rest of Illinois. Demographic differences as you moved south were huge. Of course there were blips along the way, like Peoria where I was from, whose economy is dominated by Caterpillar ... thus dominated by the world market for moving dirt.
Woooo!!! we made the cut!! ..oh, wait a minute...
An interesting addition to the graphic would be a dot indicating the lowest CPI in the state.
The most expensive city is Obama's alleged birthplace. Heh, the irony burns. But at the end of the day I'd rather live in Honolulu at a high price rather than any place in Bumfuck Flyover America on the cheap.
Damn, 202 and I only have to drive 15 minutes to see Miguel Cabrera come to town. Not too bad for big city living.
I need a place to live where I do not have to register my "Sling Shot" with 1/2 inch steel balls....
Cheap bourbon allows me to live in the cheapest state: inebriation.
"Old Crow Reserve" is a great buy for the money, 86 proof.
My other favorite is "Old Grand Dad" but the state store quit carrying it.
Most bourbon is WAY overpriced, they are making a killing on it.
Flippin' Jack Daniels is not worth $22 for a fifth.
I stick with Evan Williams, at least it comes in glass. $15.49 for 1.75 liters, was 90 proof now 86 proof. It's passable for the price. If Rye whiskey was more reasonably priced I'd be pouring that down, much smoother than bourbon. I'll check on that Old Crow Reserve though, thanks.
What you know about good whisky could fill a thimble.
The first bottle of Jack I bought was 90 proof and was $7.00 a 5th. Now it is 80 proof and well north of $20 a 5th. Garbage. The best whisky for the money is Very Old Barton 100 proof. Proboblem is, they only sell it in Kentucky. Try Buffalo Trace or Old Forester. They are the two best out there, unless you want to spurge on some Eagle Rare 10 year. For what it is, it too is a value.
5 of the top 10 here in NorCal.
mainland usa is bat shit crazy, barely civilized place in a world index. hawaii is the sweetest place in the usa.the majority non white asian pacific island influence is the key.
That's the biggest blessing in HNL....no in-your-face mainlanders. Gotta keep it that way.
If people from the mainland come, it becomes a mess.
I used to have a close friend from Danville. When he retired, he moved back to be close to his 90 year old mother. I visited him there back in 2001, and let me tell you, the whole place was depressing as hell. No industry except for the prison that was located there. It would have to be cheap, VERY CHEAP. I don't understand how people make a living there, what is the local economy; I'll cut your hair on Monday, and you cut mine on Tuesday?
Quick employment scan and it looks like your typical rural county seat, non-fortune-500 economy. The word provincial comes to mind, or what the people in dc dismissively refer to as flyover country.
Give us a break! Who wants to live in America?
If you live in HNL, you get used to it...like living in JPN.....especially food & gas. Makes your life miserable & takes time to get used to it.
Everything is so expensive. With $1million, it's not possible to buy a decent house.