The 20 Most Expensive Cities To Live In America For 2023


We looked at cost of living metrics for every city in America over 100,000 people to determine which ones cost the most.

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Walk with me down memory lane for a quick example of how expensive some cities costs.

My old rent for a 2-bedroom apartment in San Francisco, CA in 2013 – $2,000.

My mortgage for a 4-bedroom house in Durham, NC in 2013 — $1,300.

The rent on that old apartment now… close to $5,000. My mortgage now? Still $1,300.

The cost of San Francisco was one the major factors in our decision to leave, but is San Francisco even the most expensive city in America? According to the most recent data, Glendale, CA. What?

Well New York City didn’t have all the available indexes, so apparently Glendale had to step in and take the top spot while San Francisco comes in at number 3.

The 10 Most Expensive Cities In America For 2023

  1. Glendale
  2. Los Angeles
  3. Boulder
  4. Burbank
  5. Inglewood
  6. Daly City
  7. El Monte
  8. Irvine
  9. New York
  10. El Cajon

The least expensive city in America? Springfield, Il.

While San Francisco might not have been able to take the top spot, twelve cities from California appear in the top 20 most expensive. A lot of that does in fact have to do with housing costs, but San Francisco didn’t take the top spot because things like services and groceries aren’t as expensive.

For more on the top twenty, read on. Or if you’re looking for some cheaper places to live, check out:

Editor’s Note: We updated this article for 2023. This is our tenth time ranking the most expensive cities in America.

The Top 20 Most Expensive Cities In America

#1 Most Expensive City In America

Glendale, CA

Population: 196,512

Glendale, CA

Source: Public domain

Overall SnackAbility

7
/10

#2 Most Expensive City In America

Los Angeles, CA

Population: 3,902,440

#3 Most Expensive City In America

Boulder, CO

Population: 104,930

Boulder, CO

Source: Public domain

Overall SnackAbility

8
/10

#4 Most Expensive City In America

Burbank, CA

Population: 107,364

Burbank, CA

Source: Public domain

Overall SnackAbility

8.5
/10

#5 Most Expensive City In America

Inglewood, CA

Population: 108,206

#6 Most Expensive City In America

Daly City, CA

Population: 104,914

Daly City, CA

Source: Public domain

Overall SnackAbility

9
/10

#7 Most Expensive City In America

El Monte, CA

Population: 110,144

El Monte, CA

Source: Public domain

Overall SnackAbility

6
/10

#8 Most Expensive City In America

Irvine, CA

Population: 297,868

Irvine, CA

Source: Public domain

Overall SnackAbility

9
/10

#9 Most Expensive City In America

New York, NY

Population: 8,736,047

#10 Most Expensive City In America

El Cajon, CA

Population: 106,043

#11 Most Expensive City In America

Pasadena, CA

Population: 138,771

Pasadena, CA

Source: Public domain

Overall SnackAbility

7.5
/10

#12 Most Expensive City In America

Oceanside, CA

Population: 174,461

#13 Most Expensive City In America

Anaheim, CA

Population: 348,204

#14 Most Expensive City In America

Escondido, CA

Population: 151,443

Escondido, CA

Source: Public domain

Overall SnackAbility

7
/10

#15 Most Expensive City In America

San Mateo, CA

Population: 105,087

San Mateo, CA

Source: Public domain

Overall SnackAbility

9
/10

#16 Most Expensive City In America

Costa Mesa, CA

Population: 112,148

#17 Most Expensive City In America

East Los Angeles, CA

Population: 118,964

#18 Most Expensive City In America

Urban Honolulu, HI

Population: 351,554

Overall SnackAbility

8
/10

#19 Most Expensive City In America

Cambridge, MA

Population: 116,892

#20 Most Expensive City In America

Garden Grove, CA

Population: 172,708

Methodology: How We Determined The Most Expensive Cities To Live In The USA For 2023

To create our list of the most expensive cities in America, we looked to a cost of living index across several bundles of goods for every city over 100,000 for which there was data available.

This left us with 332 cities from across the country.

With that example in mind, we derived several statistics from the latest Census American Community Survey 2013-2017 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 California to figure out which is the least expensive.

We ranked every city on each of these indexes, averaged the indexes into a score, and ranked the city with the best score as the “Most Expensive City In America For 2023”. You can download the data here.

It’s important to note that by ranking these linearly we removed some of the impact of stupidly high rent. San Francisco has the highest rent in our database and is almost twice as much as Yonkers, but Yonkers has rent in the top 10%, so it balances out against other expenses.

Summary: The Most Expensive Big Cities in America

After measuring the cost of living in every city in the county, Glendale is the most expensive there is to live.

My plan now? Stay in Durham for as long as I can — it’s one of the cheaper big cities to call home in America.

And for those playing at home, here’s a look at the least expensive cities in America:

  1. Springfield
  2. Cedar Rapids
  3. Davenport

For more, read on:

Detailed List Of The Most Expensive Cities In The US For 2023

Rank City Population
1 Glendale, CA 196,512
2 Los Angeles, CA 3,902,440
3 Boulder, CO 104,930
4 Burbank, CA 107,364
5 Inglewood, CA 108,206
6 Daly City, CA 104,914
7 El Monte, CA 110,144
8 Irvine, CA 297,868
9 New York, NY 8,736,047
10 El Cajon, CA 106,043
11 Pasadena, CA 138,771
12 Oceanside, CA 174,461
13 Anaheim, CA 348,204
14 Escondido, CA 151,443
15 San Mateo, CA 105,087
16 Costa Mesa, CA 112,148
17 East Los Angeles, CA 118,964
18 Urban Honolulu, HI 351,554
19 Cambridge, MA 116,892
20 Garden Grove, CA 172,708
21 Santa Ana, CA 313,818
22 Boston, MA 672,814
23 Long Beach, CA 466,565
24 Simi Valley, CA 126,809
25 Downey, CA 114,293
26 Miami, FL 440,807
27 Santa Rosa, CA 179,213
28 San Diego, CA 1,385,398
29 Antioch, CA 114,750
30 Huntington Beach, CA 198,735
31 Ontario, CA 175,223
32 Hayward, CA 162,254
33 Berkeley, CA 119,607
34 Richmond, CA 115,677
35 San Buenaventura (Ventura), CA 110,572
36 Pomona, CA 151,592
37 Salinas, CA 163,004
38 West Covina, CA 109,396
39 Oakland, CA 437,548
40 Thousand Oaks, CA 127,274
41 Oxnard, CA 202,981
42 San Jose, CA 1,013,337
43 Torrance, CA 147,156
44 Fullerton, CA 142,964
45 Hialeah, FL 224,362
46 Carlsbad, CA 114,858
47 Norwalk, CA 103,330
48 Yonkers, NY 209,730
49 Newark, NJ 306,247
50 Orange, CA 139,195
51 Vallejo, CA 125,350
52 Elizabeth, NJ 135,772
53 Rancho Cucamonga, CA 173,946
54 Chula Vista, CA 274,818
55 Santa Clarita, CA 227,182
56 Sunnyvale, CA 155,550
57 Concord, CA 125,769
58 Quincy, MA 100,544
59 Lynn, MA 100,233
60 Santa Clara, CA 127,922
61 Renton, WA 105,313
62 Hollywood, FL 152,597
63 Santa Maria, CA 109,309
64 Moreno Valley, CA 208,371
65 Paterson, NJ 157,927
66 Gresham, OR 114,164
67 Fort Lauderdale, FL 182,247
68 San Francisco, CA 865,933
69 Stamford, CT 134,820
70 Riverside, CA 314,858
71 Chico, CA 103,898
72 Menifee, CA 101,089
73 New Orleans, LA 383,974
74 Washington, DC 683,154
75 Lakewood, CO 155,608
76 Fort Collins, CO 166,788
77 West Palm Beach, FL 115,877
78 Lancaster, CA 171,820
79 Fairfield, CA 118,932
80 Denver, CO 706,799
81 Paradise, NV 189,852
82 Eugene, OR 173,278
83 Miami Gardens, FL 111,706
84 Seattle, WA 726,054
85 San Bernardino, CA 220,821
86 Corona, CA 157,844
87 Fremont, CA 231,502
88 Spring Valley, NV 217,441
89 Kent, WA 134,890
90 Everett, WA 110,438
91 Orlando, FL 302,968
92 Sacramento, CA 518,605
93 Jersey City, NJ 287,146
94 Vacaville, CA 102,256
95 Vancouver, WA 188,331
96 Murrieta, CA 111,096
97 Temecula, CA 109,376
98 Tempe, AZ 178,862
99 Bellevue, WA 149,365
100 Aurora, CO 383,496

Most Expensive Places By State

About Chris Kolmar

Chris Kolmar has been in the real estate business for almost ten years now. He originally worked for Movoto Real Estate as the director of marketing before founding HomeSnacks.

He believes the key to finding the right place to live comes down to looking at the data, reading about things to do, and, most importantly, checking it out yourself before you move.

If you've been looking for a place to live in the past several years, you've probably stumbled upon his writing already.

You can find out more about him on LinkedIn or his website.