Report: Boston ranks in the top 10 for the highest cost of living

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Boston has the eighth-highest cost of living in the United States, according to a new report. Craig F. Walker/Globe Staff

By Kelly Garrity -- Boston.com correspondent

November 23, 2021

1 minute to read

With consumer prices seeing their biggest year-over-year increases since 1990 in October, the cost of living in the United States is steadily creeping up, outpacing the median household income in some regions.

Boston residents know that living in the city can cost a pretty penny, but how does that cost compare nationally?

According to a report from the moving service website Move.org, it costs an average of $2,371 a month to live in Boston, the eighth-highest outlay among the cities analyzed in the report. The cities that had the highest cost of living were all in California:

Irvine ($3,062)
San Jose ($2,812)
San Francisco ($2,775)

The cities that had the lowest cost of living were:

Wichita, Kan ($1,219)
Cincinnati ($1,226)
Tulsa, Okla. ($1,249)

The report looked at data from the 74 most populous cities in the country, comparing the cost of rent, food, utilities, and gas. Boston had the sixth-highest median contract rent cost, at $1,641 a month. Individual and household incomes were included in the dataset but were not factored into the rankings, according to the report.

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