Cost of Living in the United States: A ZIP-Level Guide

The phrase "cost of living" gets tossed around as if it were a single, comparable index. In reality it is a bundle: housing costs (rent or mortgage plus utilities), transportation, food, healthcare, taxes, and discretionary spending. The U.S. Census Bureau does not publish a unified cost-of-living index, but its American Community Survey (ACS) 5-year estimates give us the most granular and consistent measurements of the largest line items — housing and income — at the ZIP code, city, county and state level.

City Zip Compare uses ACS5 vintage 2023 (released December 2024) as its baseline. The headline numbers: median household income of $78,538, median gross rent of $1,406 per month, and median owner-occupied home value of $303,400. These national medians are the benchmarks we compare every ZIP, city, and state against on this site.

The most common misconception is that a low headline price means a low cost of living. In practice, the ratio of housing cost to local income — what statisticians call the cost burden — is what determines whether a place is genuinely affordable for the people who live there. A ZIP with $1,200 rent and $42,000 median income is more cost-burdened than a ZIP with $2,400 rent and $130,000 income, even though the absolute rent is lower.

For most U.S. households, housing is the single largest monthly expense. ACS Table B25064 reports median gross rent (contract rent plus tenant-paid utilities), and Table B25077 reports median value of owner-occupied housing units. Together these two variables explain most of the geographic variation in cost of living across the country.

The national median rent of $1,406 hides extreme dispersion. ZIPs in San Francisco, Manhattan, parts of Boston, coastal Los Angeles, and the District of Columbia regularly post median rents above $2,500 — nearly twice the national figure. At the other end of the distribution, much of the rural Midwest, the Mississippi Delta, and parts of Appalachia show median rents under $750. Owner-occupied home values follow the same pattern with even wider tails: ZIPs in Atherton, Beverly Hills, and parts of Manhattan exceed $2 million in median value, while many rural ZIPs sit below $100,000.

Cost burden is the other half of the housing story. ACS Table B25070 (renters) and B25091 (owners with a mortgage) classify households by the percentage of income spent on housing. The 30% threshold is the federal definition of cost burden; 50%+ is severe cost burden. Roughly 30% of all U.S. renter households are cost-burdened, and that share has been rising since the early 2000s.

• ACS Table B25064 — median gross rent
• ACS Table B25077 — median owner-occupied home value
• ACS Table B25070 — gross rent as % of household income
• ACS Table B25091 — selected monthly owner costs as % of income

Affordability is a ratio. The numerator (housing cost) gets all the attention; the denominator (local income) determines whether a place is actually livable. ACS Table B19013 (median household income) is the canonical income variable we use across City Zip Compare. The 2023 5-year national figure is $78,538, but state medians range from roughly $54,000 in Mississippi to over $98,000 in Maryland and New Jersey, with metro-area variation that is larger still.

When a place reports both high housing costs and high incomes — most of the Bay Area, Boston, Seattle, the D.C. suburbs — the cost-of-living math is mixed: nominal expenses are eye-watering, but median earners can usually carry them. When a place reports moderate housing costs and low incomes — much of the Deep South and rural Appalachia — affordability for outsiders looks great, but local cost burden statistics tell a harsher story.

This is why City Zip Compare always pairs the housing variables with B19013 income on every ZIP, city, and county page. The two numbers are only meaningful together.

After housing, transportation is the next-largest household expense for most Americans. ACS Table B08303 reports mean travel time to work, and B08301 reports commuting mode. National mean travel time is roughly 26.7 minutes one way, but suburban and exurban ZIPs in major metros can exceed 35 minutes — adding up to nearly six weeks of additional commute time per year compared to a 20-minute baseline.

Long commutes are also a hidden cost-of-living tax: longer drives mean higher fuel and maintenance spending, more vehicle depreciation, and (in two-earner households) more childcare. When you compare two ZIPs with similar rents, the one with the shorter commute and better transit access usually has a lower true cost of living, even if the headline numbers look identical.

On City Zip Compare, the correct workflow for evaluating cost of living between two places is:

1) Open both ZIP code pages and read the Census-derived narrative section. 2) Compare median household income (B19013) — this sets the affordability denominator. 3) Compare median gross rent (B25064) and median home value (B25077) — these set the numerator. 4) Look at mean commute time (B08303) — long commutes are a hidden tax. 5) Cross-check against the state and county pages to understand whether the ZIP is typical or an outlier within its broader market.

Our /compare tool stacks two ZIPs side-by-side using the same ACS5 variables for a deterministic, apples-to-apples comparison.