The decisions you make regarding stability in a location impact your entire financial picture: your work income and job opportunities, whether you can afford to buy a home, and what you will pay for necessities like groceries, healthcare, transportation, and utilities.
It also affects your future, goals, and lifestyle. Are there colleges in the city for you or your children? What about entertainment? How much time will you spend commuting?
2023 Housing Market: The 10 Most Overpriced Housing Markets in the U.S. – 5 in Florida
Considering the cost of living across the country and other data, 24/7 Wall St. looked at the most expensive city to live in each state. The results showed that in some locations, the cost of living exceeds the national average. However, similar to marvel, the amount required to live in the most expensive urban area in 29 states is less than the average cost of living, according to the study.
GOBankingRates added information from the U.S. Census Bureau, Zillow, Data USA, and others to provide intriguing facts about life in these fifty urban areas. Let’s take a look at the most expensive place to live in each state.
Alabama: Daphne-Fairhope-Foley
This urban area is home to about 104,000 working people. While the majority of jobs are in retail and healthcare/social assistance, the highest paying industries are mining and extraction from quarries, oil, and gas at about $74,000 annually.
Alaska: Anchorage
High-paying jobs help offset the expensive cost of living in Alaska. Mining and extraction from quarries, oil, and gas is also the highest-paying sector in Anchorage, at around $136,000 annually – not double the wages in Alabama.
Arizona: Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler
Despite a cost of living above the average, the Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler area still attracts new residents. According to data from the U.S. Census Bureau, Maricopa County saw the largest growth of any county in the country in 2022, adding 56,831 people.
Arkansas: Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers
People looking to relocate also find the Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers area appealing. From 2020 to 2021, the urban area’s population grew by 2.27%. The median household income grew at an even larger rate – 7.78%.
California: San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley
The San Francisco Bay Area remains expensive for many families, but it still retains its distinctive diversity. About 42% of the area’s residents speak a language other than English at home – double the national average.
Colorado: Denver-Aurora-Lakewood
Colleges in the Denver metropolitan area pump thousands of new graduates into the job market every year. The largest number of these degrees is awarded in public administration, management, registered nursing, and public health nursing.
Connecticut: Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk
The Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk area provides an alternative residence for those working in New York City who do not want to pay the extremely high housing prices. The cost of living in the New York urban area is 15.5% above the national average – about 10% higher than these communities in Connecticut.
Delaware: Dover
It costs about 5% less than the national average to live in Dover, the capital of Delaware. If you work in public services, you’ll have one of the highest-paying jobs in the state with an average of around $100,000.
Florida: Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach
The average home price in Miami is about $570,000. Homes cost about $534,000 in Fort Lauderdale and $363,000 in Pompano Beach. Each of these has risen by at least 4% from last year, according to Zillow.
Georgia: Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Alpharetta
The Atlanta metropolitan area, which includes Sandy Springs and Alpharetta, has a population of 6.22 million, making it the eighth largest metropolitan area in the U.S., according to Statista reports.
Hawaii:
Urban Honolulu
Hawaii continues to attract foreign residents, despite the high cost of living. In 2021, the highest number of residents in the state came from other countries, with the Philippines leading, followed by Japan and China.
Idaho: Boise
The cost of owning a home in Boise is decreasing, although the average price is $468,000. This represents a 4.8% drop from last year, according to Zillow.
Illinois: Chicago-Naperville-Elgin
Workers in this urban area spend longer commuting (31.3 minutes) than the typical worker in the United States (26.8 minutes). What’s worse? Over 3% of the workforce in the region has commutes lasting more than 90 minutes.
Indiana: Indianapolis-Carmel-Anderson
The Indianapolis-Carmel-Anderson area has a workforce of 1.05 million people. The largest number of employees – over 150,000 – are found in the healthcare/social assistance category, followed by manufacturing (about 128,000).
Iowa: Iowa City
If you want to live in a city where you can walk to work, check out Iowa City. In 2021, 14% of the city’s workforce walked to their jobs.
Kansas: Manhattan
Manhattan is home to Kansas State University, which awarded 6,030 degrees in 2021. The most common majors among college students in Manhattan are elementary education and teaching, followed by general marketing and management, then general animal science.
Kentucky: Lexington-Fayette
Lexington is another area where the highest-paying job is in mining and extraction from quarries, oil, and gas – workers earn an average of about $115,909.
Louisiana: New Orleans-Metairie
Thanks to Louisiana’s long history of energy production, it’s no surprise that the largest exports from the state are gasoline, unspecified coal products, and fuel oils.
Maine: Portland-South Portland
The state of Maine shares a border with Canada, and a number of Canadians have moved south to the Portland area and the rest of the state. In 2021, about 9,400 residents of the state were born in Canada.
Maryland: Baltimore-Columbia-Towson
From 2020 to 2021, the population of Baltimore-Columbia-Towson increased to 2.84 million, by 1.31%, and the median household income increased from $87,513 to 4.42%.
Massachusetts: Boston-Cambridge-Newton
The Boston area is home to several prominent colleges and universities, including Harvard University in Cambridge. Among the residents of the Boston-Cambridge-Newton area, 51.4% hold a bachelor’s degree or higher, about 1.4 times the U.S. average.
Michigan: Ann Arbor
Ann Arbor is another college town, home to the University of Michigan. In 2021, the university awarded nearly 16,000 degrees, giving employers in the state a fresh influx of potential workforce members.
Minnesota: Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington
Healthcare/social assistance tops the list when it comes to jobs in the Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington area, boasting nearly 300,000 jobs. It’s fitting that about 4,900 registered nursing degrees were awarded in the area in 2021.
Mississippi: Gulfport-Biloxi
The average home value in Gulfport is about $191,000, according to Zillow, which is a 3.2% increase over the last year.
Missouri: St. Louis
Forbes included three companies based in the St. Louis area in its 2023 list of the top 100 large employers in the nation – Edward Jones, Washington University, and BJC Healthcare. Together, they have about 90,000 employees.
Montana: Billings
Like Maine, Montana is located on the Canadian border. About 3,400 people born in Canada live in Montana.
Nebraska: Omaha-Council Bluffs
The Omaha-Council Bluffs area also extends into part of Iowa. The two states exported $46.6 billion in meat and seafood in 2020.
Nevada: Reno
Reno calls itself the “Biggest Little City in the World,” but it has also been a Tree City USA for about 30 years. There are 159 species of trees in Reno’s parks, according to the city.
New
New Hampshire: Manchester-Nashua
Manchester is the largest city in northern New England, with over 115,000 residents. It embodies the charm of New England and is also an hour’s drive from Boston, the White Mountains, and the coast.
New Jersey: Trenton-Princeton
Home values are about nine times higher in Princeton compared to Trenton, the state capital. The U.S. Census Bureau estimates the median value of owner-occupied homes at $893,600. In Trenton, it is $96,700.
New Mexico: Santa Fe
When most people think of the oldest American settlements, they think of the Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts. However, Santa Fe is the oldest capital in the United States, founded 13 years before the pilgrims landed in 1620. It was a major area for the Spanish Empire north of the Rio Grande.
New York: New York-Newark-Jersey City
The New York-Newark-Jersey City area is a mix of cultures. The largest number of foreign-born residents in the area come from the Dominican Republic, followed by China and India.
North Carolina: Raleigh-Cary
Raleigh dates back to the second half of the 18th century. Cary, the less-known of the two, has roots from that era as well but remained a quiet community until the development of the nearby Research Triangle Park about 200 years later. Cary grew from a population of about 44,000 in 1990 to 132,000 in 2010 to 180,000 in 2022.
North Dakota: Bismarck
The average resident of Bismarck spends about 16 minutes commuting to work, although 1.44% of the city’s workforce has commutes longer than 90 minutes.
Ohio: Columbus
Columbus, home to Ohio State University, is the largest city in the state by population. Official figures indicate that Columbus has a population of about 908,000, far surpassing Cleveland (362,000) and Cincinnati (310,000).
Oklahoma: Oklahoma City
Here are some fun facts, thanks to the folks visiting OKC. In terms of land area, Oklahoma City is the eighth largest urban area in the United States. The capitol building in Oklahoma City had an active oil well until 2021 – and Oklahoma was the only state that could say that.
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