Map shows the US cities with the highest cost of living

A study of the 25 largest metro areas in the US has revealed the cities with the highest and the lowest cost of living.

Researchers at SmartAsset determined the amount of money needed to live comfortably in the biggest metro areas using the 50/30/20 rule. It is a budgeting strategy that allocates 50% of after tax income to basic living needs, 30% to discretionary spending and 20% for savings or paying off debt.

‘Ultimately, inflation has affected everything from the cost of housing to the price of eggs, making it increasingly difficult to live comfortably in America’s largest cities,’ stated SmartAsset in its study released last month.

Topping the list of most expensive cities to live in is San Francisco along with Oakland and Berkeley in Northern California. Those cities in the Bay Area require a post-tax salary of about $84,000 in order to live comfortably.

‘Despite remaining the most expensive place in our study, San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley had the smallest one-year increase in the after-tax income needed from a year ago (13.12%),’ stated SmartAsset.

The second-highest cost of living is in San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad – the area jumped up four spots in the rankings since last year. A single person must earn about $79,300 after taxes to live comfortably in this part of Southern California.

In third came in the Boston-Cambridge-Newton area of Massachusetts, where a single person must earn about $78,700 after taxes to not struggle.

It is not surprising that the New York metropolitan area ranked. The region including New York City, Jersey City and Newark came in fourth and an individual must earn about $78,500 after taxes to live comfortably.

The fifth most expensive place was the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue area of Washington state, where an individual should earn about $77,600 after tax to live well.

Meanwhile, the place that requires the lowest salary of the 25 metropolitan areas is St Louis, Missouri, which did not change from last year. An individual needs to earn about $57,400 after taxes to be comfortable there.

The next four areas with the lowest cost of living, respectively, are the Detroit metro area of Michigan; San Antonio and New Braunfels, Texas; Philadelphia, Camden and Wilmington in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland; and Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia in the Carolinas.

SmartAsset used the most up-to-date MIT Living Wage Calculator to source information on the basic cost of living for an individual without children in each metro area, then calculated the take-home pay, to come up with its list.

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