Ro's Recz

While I normally write about things I recommend, I want to have more variation. I will continue to do recommendations of things I come across, but I also want to post my findings of questions that I have (on any topic). These are not questions unique to myself; however, I have taken the time to research the topics and find out the answers. When I find an article that has been written about the subject, I will simply summarize the findings and direct you to the article (for further investigation).

Since I will be starting work relatively soon, I have been curious about what the most expensive cities to live in the US are. Obviously, the price depends on your own personal interests and spending habits; however, on average, these are the most expensive cities to live in the US.

According to Investopedia, the most expensive cities to live in are:

1. New York City, NY
2. San Francisco, CA
3. Honolulu, HI
4. Boston, MA
5. Washington D.C
6. Oakland, CA
7. San Jose, CA
8. San Diego, CA
9. Los Angeles, CA
10. Miami, FL

According to another list by Bungalow, the most expensive cities to live in are:

1. San Francisco, CA
2. New York City, NY
3. Oakland, CA
4. Boston, MA
5. Washington D.C
6. San Jose, CA
7. Seattle, WA
8. Honolulu, HI
9. Los Angeles, CA
10. San Diego, CA

As you can see, the lists between the two sites are very similar; they both have almost the same top 10 (in different order though), except Investopedia has Miami, while Bungalow has Seattle. However, they both have San Francisco and New York as either #1 or #2. I thought these lists were pretty much what I expected to see, with California having a bunch of incredibly expensive cities to live in. Be sure to check out both of the individual links for a more detailed breakdown of how costs were calculated!

However, I was a bit surprised to see both Oakland and San Jose above Los Angeles for both lists. I would have guessed that Los Angeles would be #3, but I guess Silicon Valley costs of living are really that high now.

Even though it was expected, it is quite incredible that every single city on both lists is along one the coasts, which just demonstrates that this is where a lot of the money is nowadays. I would be interested in seeing if the list changes in the upcoming years (as people may begin to migrate away from major cities), but for now these major metropolitan areas are still the most expensive places to live.