When I first got into real estate, I worked with buyers moving to St. Louis, MO and discovered that the cost of living, especially home prices, varies dramatically across the U.S.
People assume because St. Louis is in the Midwest that prices will naturally be less expensive than where they live. But it isn’t always true. My clients moving from Florida, Oklahoma, Dallas, and Kalamazoo where homes were often built with non-union immigrant labor and don’t have basements, found they had to pay a lot more in St. Louis to get a similar home.
Comparing Cost of Living Across Cities:
I found a website tool that compares cities on 59 different products including orange juice, movies, doctor visits, and even Lipitor.
You enter your current salary into the calculator and see how much money you would have to make in another city based on the cost of living difference to maintain the same standard of living.
St. Louis vs. Los Angeles:
If you live in St. Louis and have an income of $75,000, you would need a salary raise of 47% to $109,893 to move to LA and maintain the same standard of living.
The items that are most more expensive in LA vs St. Louis are:
- Home Price ($198k vs $536k)
- Apartment Rent ($795 vs $2,083)
- Lipitor ($117 vs $197)
- Optometrist ($77 vs $116)
- Beauty Salon ($36 vs $60)
I checked a few other cities, and St. Louis is a less expensive place to live than almost all of them.
What about your city? Would it be more expensive or less expensive to move to your dream location?
Find out here and let us know in the comments.
