Cost of Living in the USA 2024

The cost of living in USA per month is pretty expensive. As of 2024, The most expensive USA cities include Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Boston, Honolulu, Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles. Although the salaries are high, but one needs to plan and calculate the cost of living before moving to United States. The cost of living is all of your expenses, including homes, groceries, utilities and insurance. In essence, it's what it costs to live. Gauging an area's cost of living is a crucial factor when figuring out where to live. The states with the highest cost of living are Hawaii, the District of Columbia, New York, Massachusetts and California. On the other side, Mississippi, Arkansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Tennessee have the lowest cost of living. According to COLI, Most expensive urban areas in 2023 are New York, Honolulu, San Francisco, Orange County,Brooklyn, Washington, Los Angeles, Seattle, Boston and San Diego. Some of the Least Expensive Urban areas in 2023 are Harlingen, Decatur, Kalamazoo, Muskogee, McAllen, Topeka, Tupelo, Ashland, Anniston-Calhoun and Salina.

We analyzed eight factors when gauging the cost of living:

Check the lowest on Housing | Transportation | Utilities | Grocery | Health | Education

Here are the average cost of living for each state. A 100 avg CoLI is the average cost of living for the entire country. That means a state like Mississippi with a 84.78 average CoLI is under the average the national average. On the flip side, Hawaii is 195.8, which means nearly double the national average. In the below chart, compared to the national average represents how much higher and lower a state is compared to the national average. Generally cost of living is dependent by every state and region, calculated and by the following factors for survival like housing (15%-35%), utilities (5%-7%), transportation (4%-9%), groceries (10% - 18%), health care (4% - 6%), miscellaneous goods and services (5% - 30%), auto insurance (1% - 3%) and home insurance (1% - 2%).

According to coli, The Ten Most and Least Expensive Urban Areas in the Cost of Living Index (COLI) Year-End Review of Three Quarters in 2020 calculated on the National Average for 269 Urban Areas = 100.

Most Expenses Living Urban Areas

Among the 269 urban areas that participated in the 2023 Cost of Living Index, the after-tax cost for a professional/managerial standard of living ranged from more than twice the national average in New York (Manhattan), NY, to almost 25 percent below the national average in Harlingen, TX.

Least Expensive Living Urban Areas

Standard of Living

USA standard of living refers to economy and Human capital refers to the knowledge, skill sets, and experience. Human capital affects economic growth and can help to develop an economy by expanding the knowledge and skills of its people. USA has the highest GDP in the world. The standard of living is derived from per capita GDP, determined by dividing GDP by the number of people living in the country. It's estimated that consumers are responsible for more than two-thirds of the economic growth in the U.S. economy. As the employed people increases and employed consumers experience wage increases, they is increase in their purchases of products and services like appliances, cars, clothes and homes. The consumer spending creates a ripple effect to the industry, thus leading to improved employment in various areas such as auto, retail, technology and home builders, which leads to higher GDP growth throughout the economy.

According to meric, 2023 US Cost of Living Index data below:

Transportation

The costs for travel and transportation in the USA are fairly cheap inside the city and also outside of the cities. In large cites the public transportation is extensive and easy to navigate and its normal to have a private vehicle. 35% of American households own three or more cars. The Transportation costs vary between the states, In metro areas the costs range from $435 to $1000 per month. Hawaii is the most expensive in Transportation costs with Index of 144.4, followed by California with 136, Oregon with 129, Washington with 122, Alaska and Nevada with 118. In many of the metro areas having facility of public transit, which have the people to use the option to not own a car making with low monthly costs.

Transportation costs in 2017 made up the fourth largest expenditure among American households ranging from 3% to 4.5% of percentage of income average. The States with lowest Transportation costs are Wyoming, Tennessee, West Virginia, Arkansas, Mississippi, New Mexico and Texas which has index value of 90 and below. In U.S. the top insurance company likes USAA, Amica, Geico, Erie, State Farm and Progressive. The average cost of car insurance in the United States is $2,388 per year or $199 per month. Therefore Transportation costs can therefore include public transit fare, fuel, and the costs of car premiums, maintenance and auto insurance. For a policy that meets the minimum requirements of each state with out full coverage policy, i.e., minimum coverage rate for the car insurance policy goes down to as lowest as $876 per year, or $73 per month. Generally, 16 is the legal driving age limit required, some states has a requirement of 14 years to 14 years 9 months with parental supervision, and other are between 15 years to 16 years.

Auto Insurance

The Louisiana state has the most expensive insurance rates for full coverage, with an average annual rate of around $3,279. The key reasons is the state has one of the highest accidental rates and it is higher than national average, so these factors lead to higher car insurance rates, followed by Florida, Maryland, Michigan and New York from $3,279 to $2609 for full coverage. The cheapest car insurance states are Idaho, Maine, Hawaii, Iowa and Vermont with $1094 to $1366. Though every U.S. State sets its own regulations that minimum amount of insurance need to carry by the vehicle, excluding New Hampshire and Virginia states don't require insurance. Generally Insurance companies like Allstate, American Family, State Farm, Progressive and Travelers are expensive for full coverage whereas USAA, Nationwide, Geico and Farmers are cheap for minimum coverage.

Housing

According to US Census Bureau, Construction, The median asking rent in the U.S. rose to $1,033 per month in Q2 2020. First time homebuyers accounted for about 33% of total sales in August 2020, down from 34% in the previous month but up from 31% a year ago, according to NAR. Regarding the cost of buying an apartment in the USA, The median sales price of new houses was sold at $330,800 in March 2021. The average sales price was $397,800 in 2022. In addition, all-cash sales were 18% of all transactions in August 2020, slightly down from 19% a year earlier. Individual investors, who account for many cash sales, purchased 14% of homes in August 2020, at par with the previous year.

How expensive is housing and accommodation in the USA?
In Cities like San Francisco and New York, accommodation is considered as the most expensive rents in the world by 2023. The amount of rent you pay is a major share of your overall cost of living, if you are on a budget, consider the life in a smaller town or city. The median home prices in California is $554,886, Washington, D.C. is $626,911, New York is $335,607, Massachusetts is $422,856, Virginia is $285,229, Florida is $245,169, Texas is $205,229, Indiana is $155,640 and Mississippi $126,502.

Health

According to Health Affairs, National health care spending in the United States is expected to grow at an average annual rate of 5.4% from 2019 to 2028, average annual growth rate of 4.3%. That national health care spending reached $3.81 trillion in 2019 and would increase to $4.01 trillion in 2020. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) projected that by 2028, health care spending would reach $6.19 trillion, and would account for 19.7% of GDP, up from 17.7% in 2018. The United States has one of the highest costs of healthcare in the world, which averages to about $121,000 per person in 2020.

Health Insurance

Health insurance in the United States is that helps pay for medical expenses, whether through privately purchased insurance or social insurance with more standardization to insurance plan benefits. Health care in the United States can be very expensive. A single doctor's office visit may cost several hundred dollars and an average three-day hospital stay can run tens of thousands of dollars depending on the type of care provided.UnitedHealth, WellCare, Cigna Health, Humana and CVS are some of the health service companies.

Utilities

The utilities you will have to pay for water, electricity and gas. Other utility bills might include your cable, garbage disposals, internet and telephone services. According to Engerystar, The typical U.S. family spends $2,060 on average per year for utility bills, which splits into electricity between $60 to $120, Natural gas between $20 to $80, Internet between $30 to $70, Cable between $ 50 to $100 and Water between $10 to $40. All that depends on the usage and number of units, and state charges. The utilities charges in usa per month are Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Alaska, Connecticut, California and Rhode Island are expensive for using utility charges between $200 to $500. Idaho, Colorado, Louisiana, Wyoming and Montana are the lowest cost of utility charges between $80 to $120.

Food and Grocery

The groceries so expensive in the U.S, supermarket prices are probably a little cheaper than in most of western Europe. Fast food and processed foods are unreasonably cheap in the USA. According to a study by Bank of America and Merrill Lynch, the store with the highest prices is Whole Foods, while Walmart had the lowest prices with Kroger super market prices are just behind Walmart. The average meal prepared at home costs around $3 to $4 for groceries a $9 savings per person per meal. If a person eat out or the average commercially prepared meal costs around $5.50 to $30. Even if you rarely spend this much money at one time when you eat out, consider frequency. Two meals for $6.50 will add up to the same price.

Education

All children have access to free public schools in USA. The public education is free and there are some fees associated with uniform, bus facility, sports, books and art classes. The federal government provides funding for public education. Regarding Public high school fees for international students in USA, According to the U.S. Department of State, Public high schools are free for American students, but international students must pay a fee, these fees usually range between $3,000 and $10,000. On average, the tuition fees for private day schools in the USA is between $7,000 to $12,000 for grades 1 to 3, $9,000 to $13,000 for grades 6 to 8, and $11,000 to $15,000 for grades 9 to 12. Private schools do require tuition fee and are run by a religious organizations. Due to lack of state funding, College education is expensive, an increase in financial aid.

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