As expected, New York City is the most expensive metro area, coming in at 50.9% above the U.S. National Average. San Antonio received the top ranking at 4.1% below the national average. Of the top five least expensive cities, three are located in Texas. Half of the cities included in the index are more expensive than the national average by more than 10%.
Cost-of-living data are based on income and expenditure assumptions for a typical mid-level, professional lifestyle. Assumptions are held constant across each area. Goods and services used for price comparisons include housing, consumables, transportation, health services, and tax obligations.
ERI's Relocation Assessor® & COL Survey is a desktop software application that compares cost-of-living levels in over 11,500 areas. HR professionals and consultants utilize this software to calculate relocation bonuses (or salary adjustments) for transferred employees. Relationships are derived from thousands of cost-of-living data points gathered via ERI’s provision of web services, digitization of public records, patented online surveys, and other licensed UK, Canadian, US and international cost-of-living datasets.
