Most Expensive Places To Live In Alabama For 2020

The 10 Most Expensive Places To Live In Alabama For 2020

1. Gulf Shores

The median income in Gulf Shores comes in at $50,306 and the median home value is $242,400 for 2020.

2. Auburn

Auburn is a city in Lee County, Alabama, United States. It is the largest city in eastern Alabama with a 2016 population of 63,118. It is a principal city of the Auburn-Opelika Metropolitan Area. The Auburn-Opelika, AL MSA with a population of 158,991, along with the Columbus, GA-AL MSA and Tuskegee, Alabama, comprises the greater Columbus-Auburn-Opelika, GA-AL CSA, a region home to 501,649 residents.

The median income in Auburn comes in at $44,654 and the median home value is $251,000 for 2020.

3. Tuscaloosa

Tuscaloosa is a city in and the seat of Tuscaloosa County in west central Alabama. Located on the Black Warrior River at the Atlantic Seaboard fall line of the Piedmont, it is the fifth-largest city in Alabama, with an estimated population of 99,543 in 2016.

The median income in Tuscaloosa comes in at $44,120 and the median home value is $173,900 for 2020.

4. Troy

Troy is a city in Pike County, Alabama, United States. The city is the county seat of Pike County. It was formally incorporated on February 4, 1843.

The median income in Troy comes in at $29,406 and the median home value is $152,300 for 2020.

5. Foley

Foley is a city in Baldwin County, Alabama, United States. The 2010 census lists the population of the city as 14,618. Foley is a principal city of the Daphne-Fairhope-Foley Micropolitan Statistical Area, which includes all of Baldwin County.

The median income in Foley comes in at $46,221 and the median home value is $170,300 for 2020.

6. Fairhope

Fairhope is a city in Baldwin County, Alabama, United States, on a sloping plateau, along the cliffs and shoreline of Mobile Bay. The 2010 census lists the population of the city as 15,326. Fairhope is a principal city of the Daphne-Fairhope-Foley micropolitan area, which includes all of Baldwin County. In 2016, Fairhope was named the best small town in the South by Southern Living magazine.

The median income in Fairhope comes in at $70,330 and the median home value is $256,400 for 2020.

7. Montevallo

Montevallo is a city in Shelby County, Alabama, United States. A college town, it is the home of the University of Montevallo, a public liberal arts university with approximately 3,000 students. As of the 2010 census, the population of the city of Montevallo is 6,323. Hollie Campbell Cost, a professor in the College of Education at the University of Montevallo, serves as Mayor.

The median income in Montevallo comes in at $41,720 and the median home value is $155,400 for 2020.

8. Homewood

Homewood is a city in southeastern Jefferson County, Alabama, United States. It is a suburb of Birmingham, located on the other side of Red Mountain due south of the city center. Its estimated 2015 population is 25,708.

The median income in Homewood comes in at $77,269 and the median home value is $333,600 for 2020.

Pell City is a city in St. Clair County, Alabama, United States. The city is the county seat of St. Clair County along with Ashville. At the 2000 census the population was 9,565. At the 2010 census, the city-limit population jumped to 12,695.

The median income in Pell City comes in at $48,921 and the median home value is $171,200 for 2020.

10. Spanish Fort

Spanish Fort is a city in Baldwin County, Alabama, United States, located on the eastern shore of Mobile Bay. The 2010 census lists the population of the city as 6,798. It is a suburb of Mobile and is part of the Daphne-Fairhope-Foley micropolitan area.

The median income in Spanish Fort comes in at $77,075 and the median home value is $254,600 for 2020.

How We Determined The Most Expensive Places To Live In The Heart of Dixie For 2020

The two most important things to think about when it comes to being able to afford if you can live comes down to:

1. How much do money do I make?
2. How much do I have spend to live there?

You need to understand your costs in the context of how much money you make.

For example, if the median household earns $100,000 and spends $40,000 on housing it's actually cheaper to live there than a place with a median income of $50,000 and housing costs of $21,000. You might spend more on housing, but you have more money overall to play with.

With that example in mind, we derived several statistics from the latest Census American Community Survey 2014-2018 around incomes and costs. They are:

• Median Home Price / Median Income (lower is better)
• Median Income / Median Rent (Higher is better)
• Median Home Price

We added simply median home price because high home prices generally correlate with higher expenses for all costs related to homes (heating, electricity, etc).

You can then compare these metrics in each of the places in Alabama to figure out which is the most expensive.

What you are left with is a "Cost of Living Index" by taking the average rank of each of these metrics for each city.

So we used that cost of living index in order to rank all of the 103 places in Alabama that have more than 5,000 people.

The place with the highest cost of living in Alabama according to the data is Gulf Shores. You can download the data here.