How does the cost of living in NYC compare to other US cities?
There are many reasons why people choose to live in New York City. There’s so much opportunity you’ll never have never a dull moment - not to mention the incredible food! So it’s no surprise New York is the most popular city for roommates.
However, it’s also the most expensive place to rent in the US. But just how much more expensive is it, compared with other popular US cities?
We looked at New York alongside the top 10 most popular US cities and compared the price of their rent, as well as the cost of eating out and groceries, to see where each city ranked.
Here’s what we found.
Rent
Let’s start by looking at the average roommate rent in each city. According to SpareRoom’s quarterly Rental Index, the average monthly rent for a room in New York currently stands at $1,464. How does that compare to other top cities?
| City | Average rent |
Difference | |
|---|---|---|---|
| New York | $1,464 | - | |
| San Diego | $1,306 | -$158 | |
| Los Angeles | $1,288 | -$176 | |
| Miami | $1,244 | -$220 | |
| Austin | $941 | -$523 | |
| Phoenix | $929 | -$535 | |
| Chicago | $910 | -$554 | |
| Las Vegas | $899 | -$565 | |
| Dallas | $880 | -$584 | |
| Atlanta | $852 | -$612 | |
| Houston | $802 | -$662 |
New York is clearly the most expensive place to rent a room in that list. In fact, it’s the most expensive place to rent a room in the whole of the US.
Food
Another big expense for most of us is food. So, we decided to look at the average cost of a grocery shop in each city, as well as the cost of eating out, based on a meal for two at a mid-range restaurant.
Here’s how that looks.
| City | Average cost of eating out |
Average cost of grocery shop |
|---|---|---|
| New York | $120 | $58.21 |
| San Diego | $100 | $47.98 |
| Los Angeles | $90 | $51.03 |
| Miami | $100 | $48.8 |
| Austin | $100 | $43.07 |
| Phoenix | $80 | $40.14 |
| Chicago | $100 | $51.36 |
| Las Vegas | $75 | $41.39 |
| Dallas | $80 | $42.84 |
| Atlanta | $100 | $53.07 |
| Houston | $85 | $48.49 |
We used https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/ for the data and, in case you’re interested, their typical grocery shop includes: milk, a loaf of bread, rice, eggs, cheese, chicken, beef, apples, bananas, oranges, tomatoes, potatoes, onions, and lettuce.
As you can see, it’s still more expensive to eat out and buy groceries in New York. But we’re guessing that’s not really a big surprise, right? Also, the numbers aren’t wildly different when you look at one grocery shop.
It only starts to get interesting when you look at how these costs mount up over a year, as that’s when the differences really begin to show.
The bigger picture
To see how these differences might actually affect you, depending on which city you choose to live in, we’ve combined the cost of rent with the food costs. In reality, there are plenty of other expenses that will factor into your daily life, (they will also vary in cost by city), including things like a gym membership, using public transport, buying clothes, cinema tickets and so on. The list gets very long quite quickly - so we’ve decided to focus on rent and food as the two biggest and most common expenses people have.
Here’s what we did.
The average monthly rent is straightforward.
To calculate food averages we did the following:
- Grocery shop - we treated this as a weekly shop, so, in order to calculate a monthly average, we multiplied it by 52 (weeks) then divided by 12 (months)
- Eating out - this is slightly more complicated as not everyone eats out regularly, plus it’s the cost for a meal for two. Let’s say you ate out on average once a week, the monthly cost would be the average cost to eat out, multiplied by 52 (weeks), divided by 12 (months) and divided by two (as the average cost is for a meal for two people)
All clear? Good!
Here’s how that looks.
| City | Monthly eating out cost |
Monthly grocery shop cost |
Total monthly food bill |
|---|---|---|---|
| New York | $260 | $252.24 | $512 |
| San Diego | $195 | $207.91 | $403 |
| Los Angeles | $217 | $221.13 | $438 |
| Miami | $217 | $211.47 | $428 |
| Austin | $217 | $186.64 | $403 |
| Phoenix | $173 | $173.94 | $347 |
| Chicago | $217 | $222.56 | $439 |
| Las Vegas | $163 | $179.36 | $342 |
| Dallas | $173 | $185.64 | $359 |
| Atlanta | $217 | $229.97 | $447 |
| Houston | $184 | $210.12 | $394 |
What does that mean for you?
When you add all that together, the differences start to look pretty big.
| City | Average rent |
Total monthly food bill |
Monthly total |
Annual total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New York | $1,464 | $512 | $1,976 | $23,715 |
| San Diego | $1,306 | $403 | $1,709 | $20,507 |
| Los Angeles | $1,288 | $438 | $1,726 | $20,710 |
| Miami | $1,244 | $428 | $1,672 | $20,066 |
| Austin | $941 | $403 | $1,344 | $16,132 |
| Phoenix | $929 | $347 | $1,276 | $15,315 |
| Chicago | $910 | $439 | $1,349 | $16,191 |
| Las Vegas | $899 | $342 | $1,241 | $14,890 |
| Dallas | $880 | $359 | $1,239 | $14,868 |
| Atlanta | $852 | $447 | $1,299 | $15,584 |
| Houston | $802 | $394 | $1,196 | $14,355 |
Here’s what you’d save in each city, compared to New York, over the course of a year.
| City | Annual total |
Saving vs New York |
|---|---|---|
| New York | $23,715 | - |
| San Diego | $20,507 | $3,208 |
| Los Angeles | $20,710 | $3,005 |
| Miami | $20,066 | $3,649 |
| Austin | $16,132 | $7,583 |
| Phoenix | $15,315 | $8,400 |
| Chicago | $16,191 | $7,524 |
| Las Vegas | $14,890 | $8,825 |
| Dallas | $14,868 | $8,847 |
| Atlanta | $15,584 | $8,131 |
| Houston | $14,355 | $9,359 |
That means you could save almost $10,000 a year (and that doesn’t even count the savings in other living costs), if you chose to live in another popular US city other than New York.
Of course, like we said at the top, there are many reasons to choose one city over another, and they don’t all come down to money. But, if you’re looking at your finances and wondering whether a move could really make that much difference - the answer is yes!
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