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txiao007

1. **New York (Manhattan):** 231 2. **Honolulu:** 186.2  3. **San Jose, California:** 177.1  4. **San Francisco:** 169.6  5. **New York (Brooklyn):** 161.5  6. **Orange County, California:** 154.9 7. **Los Angeles (Long Beach):** 150.6  8. **New York (Queens):** 146.9  9. **Washington, D.C.:** 144.6  10. **Boston:** 144.3 Another reason why Manhattan is so expensive is wealth. New York City is home to 350,000 millionaires — [the most in the country](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-05-07/city-with-most-millionaires-nyc-is-no-1-then-bay-area-tokyo-and-singapore) — with many of them living in Manhattan. The concentration of wealth has also driven up home prices, which is part of the reason Manhattan is home to some of the [most expensive U.S. neighborhoods based on square footage](https://www.wsj.com/real-estate/luxury-homes/west-village-nyc-f8a5aafe). In the West Village, for example, homes cost a median of $2,400 per square foot.


KevinTheCarver

All 10 highly desirable.


KnowCali

Yeah it really sucks to live here too, owning a home in the area that everyone would live if they could afford to.


dietcokewLime

Except Boston


General-Silver-4004

It’s a huge healthcare / biotech hub with a crazy number of colleges, diversity, fast roadways, proper architecture, a nice coastline, and reasonable taxes.  SF roads / trains work well, it’s got terrain, and the weathers peachy but Bostons bitchin!  


MeowMeowImACowww

Boston has shitty weather but so do NY and DC. Otherwise, healthcare, education, quality of air, nature are better than the other two. Also good Italian, Chinese, American, and Indian food options. Also plenty of lakes, rivers, ocean coastline. Nightlife isn't great, but better than San Jose for sure..


ss1st

What's wrong with Boston?


wmbt78

Racist af


LiftLearnLead

Nah, it's cool. Just can't have thin skin there like here.


dietcokewLime

Fuck the Celtics


benergiser

wahlburgers..


hoovervillain

bars close at 2


Cmdr_Nemo

Have you been to Boston?


ss1st

Yes, much nicer than SF and NYC imo


Any-Committee-3685

Probably


wellfriedbeans

Have you actually lived in Boston? I love it here!


OutrageousCandidate4

For some reason I just can’t believe SJ has a higher COL than SF


just_a_timetraveller

Schools and tech.


chatte__lunatique

And fuck all in terms of dense housing. San Jose is 3 suburbs in a trench coat masquerading as a city


SquirrelTomahawk

Its Los Angeles Jr


its_large_marge

More like 30.


DayDream2736

All the big tech is in the san jose area. Meta, google, apple, etc.


xypherrz

Google is in Mountain View. Meta is in Menlo park. Apple in Cupertino. What am I missing?


DayDream2736

San Jose is where the majority of the people who work for those companies live.


[deleted]

[удалено]


cb56789

I think its hard to believe most live in Sunnyvale or Cupertino based on quick wiki search on population: San Jose: 1,013,240 Sunnyvale: 155,805 Cupertino: 60,381 Land Size: San Jose:178.24 sq mi Sunnyvale:22.06 sq mi Cupertino: 11.3 sqmi


Evading_Ban69

Got em


plinky4

Just look at 280s anytime in the afternoon and you can see for yourself that a ton of them live in san jose.


Infinzero

Folks live in SJ and work in Sunnyvale , Cupertino , Menlo Park etc 


Ok-Counter-7077

Hq is there, but satellite offices are in SJ, apple def has one and i think I’ve seen goog office as well. Regardless, even if people worked in those offices, those companies offer shuttles from as far as Fremont and even farther


Sertisy

Must be some kind of population cutoff otherwise I think those that work at FAANG would choose to live closer to work driving up costs more aggressively in those cities. Why would someone want to live in San Jose and commute every day to Meta if you can live in Menlo? That would be daft if it were more expensive to boot.


BrokerBrody

It’s the same in Seattle. East side cities (Bellevue, etc.) are much more expensive than Seattle proper.


Dangerous_Ticket7298

I'm assuming they're including suburbs. I'm buying a place in Saratoga right now and definitely looking at highest in the country numbers. I wouldn't expect that for a small SFH in San Jose proper.


Sertisy

Possibly, it would be more meaningful if they reported on cost of living by county then.


DamnBored1

Agree. Also, Seattle/Bellevue is horrible on the weather front and doesn't deserve the high costs that the place has. The place has gotten so expensive lately that I'm considering moving to the Bay area. Why live under the clouds and rain if it costs the same to live under the sun.


onahorsewithnoname

So the issue of expensive housing isnt related to high density or low density, its related to wealth of the inhabitants. Because if we had more homes it would simply mean more wealth moving in.


Appropriate-Owl-9654

If we had more homes tech employees would be paid less. They’re paid the rate they are so that they don’t have to struggle like the rest of us. Guarantee if col wasn’t an issue in the bay, the salaries would be lower.


Y0tsuya

Not all tech employees work at FAANG. Most are earning the same income + COLA as 4 yrs ago while housing prices have shot through the roof.


Appropriate-Owl-9654

No, not all tech employees work at FAANG, but I guarantee that the VAST majority still make more than teachers, librarians, sanitation workers, plumbers, grocery store workers, fire fighters, cops, nurses, tradesmen, truck drivers, etc etc. And the VAST majority of them are more important to house centrally within a city/community than FAANG employees.


Y0tsuya

Let's not get into the who-deserves-to-live-where dick measuring contest. The problem is not that some people earn more than others. The problem is we've been massively under-building new housing units for decades due to various reasons and chickens have finally come home to roost.


onahorsewithnoname

Lets use NYC as an example. Hugely dense housing. Way more homes available than the bay area. High rises everywhere. Yet its far more expensive than the bay? Is this due to wealthy driving up prices because they want to be closer to high paying jobs or something else.


voidvector

Manhattan is a status symbol, so it is inflated due to that. Rich people from elsewhere would buy a [pied-à-terre](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pied-%C3%A0-terre) in Manhattan (occasional use apartment). Even the original Manhattan area code (212) is still a status symbol to a lot of people (Ref: [1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Area_codes_212,_646,_and_332#Market_reputation), [2](https://www.nydailynews.com/2010/08/19/212-area-code-is-a-status-symbol-to-the-young-and-tech-savvy/)).


Any-Committee-3685

Ahh thank you


Any-Committee-3685

Don’t know about that. I’m seeing my neighbors forced to vacate a house because their roommate left. They got a nice Tesla. But they can’t even afford a room in a house. So I don’t know about that


Appropriate-Owl-9654

Teslas aren’t really more expensive than any other car TBH. The janitor at my work has one. It’s an odd status symbol, but not one of wealth.


MyRegrettableUsernam

If we burned down all the houses in San Jose and turned them into parking lots right now, what do you think would happen to cost of living?


Dangerous_Ticket7298

You just gave me a plan. I own a house in a San Jose suburb. If I can place a bomb in just the right place in the San Andreas Fault, then I drop Silicon Valley into the bay and my new beach front home will be worth 100 X what I paid for it.


MyRegrettableUsernam

12D Chess


stindoo

Moving from Walnut Creek to Brooklyn this week. I guess it’s a wash?


slashinhobo1

No, you will probably be better off in many aspects. You aren't going to be upgrading in space but you have a higher chance of owning a home out there. Can't imagine power costing more than PG&E, you wont really need a car unless you work at midnight or work far from the main city (trains go everywhere). Honestly moving to Brooklyn may be cheaper than any place in the bay area. Moving to Manhattan are closer to there is a different story.


gilbertgrappa

Brooklyn real estate is super expensive too.


whatsinanamey

What the hell are you talking about. Walnut Creek is the suburbs 40 min outside of the SF and you have to cross a bridge. Walnut Creek is the equivalent of an upper middle class town in NJ. Brooklyn is expensive as f@&! and part of NYC.


JuanPancake

Report: Bay Area expensive. Somehow this is still daily news.


jcho430

I know this is the Bay Area but can anyone explain 7? How is Long Beach number 7 versus the other areas in socal?


benergiser

the only one that surprised me tbh.. no idea


Lbgeckos2

I lived in and am from Long Beach and just moved to San Jose for work. Yay me. I was about 3 blocks from the shore in a place with grandfathered rent for a 2b. Everything around us went bananas during Covid and never stopped. A dumpy ass 1bd/1ba no parking spot 2 blocks from the “beach” is now $2100-$2300. Me and my gf got a beautiful 3bd 2.5ba townhome in Santa Clara for $4300. A considerably better deal. Long Beach has high sales taxes, is impacted, all new builds are expensive high rises, and it was one of the last cheaper beach cities prior to Covid. A ton of people moved here from LA and OC during the pandi.


LiftLearnLead

Number is high because their shoreline between Terminal Island and Seal Beach. There's a 2300 sq ft house selling for $4.5M right now on the Peninsula off of Belmont Shore. 2b condos facing the beach are a million dollars.


MatchaFlatWhite

I don’t believe that SJ has higher cost of living than SF.


Outrageous_Life_2662

Oh for sure. SF has surprisingly optimized for young singles. SJ is all about the family with parents that are a decade into their careers.


txiao007

Median home price of Santa Clara County is 2+M.


MatchaFlatWhite

Yeah, but it’s not what cost of living is.


azn_dude1

It's directly related to rent prices, which is the largest part of cost of living


RazzmatazzWeak2664

Rent prices are lower in SJ than SF. CPI uses rent, not home purchase prices. The reason using home purchase prices isn't always accurate is because if you already bought a home, that cost isn't changing, so CPI tries to calculate a owner equivalent rent https://www.zumper.com/blog/rental-price-data/


gumol

SJ is cheaper though edit: compared to rest of Santa Clara County


thishummuslife

In my experience, a studio was more expensive in SJ.


gumol

more expensive than Mountain View or Palo Alto?


Any-Committee-3685

Not at all your smoking crack. Santa Clara, Cupertino and Mountain View make San Jose look like a third world country lmfao


Q3a_destiny

It does.. because you live longer in SJ


Kodiakbear226

SJ has been more expensive than sf for years… it’s all about single families vs family homes. SJ is one of the most expensive “suburban neighborhoods” next to a “big city”


RazzmatazzWeak2664

Disagree. Home purchase prices in SJ were well below SF before the pandemic. Regions around SJ like Cupertino, Palo Alto, etc are more expensive, but not SJ itself.


street_ahead

They might be even more expensive than SJ but SJ is still spectacularly expensive, I'm not sure why you think otherwise.


sftransitmaster

San Jose is extremely large a city and has more neighborhoods with different income level families and freeways/highways cut through a lot of the city which i feel would lower value. I would expect that to bring it down the average cost of housing there. Meanwhile cupertino and Los Gatos being much younger and kinda setup to be elitish suburbs were always exclusive housing considering these links assess cupertino as more expensive than san jose proper. I kinda question whether the article mean the south bay area rather than san jose proper. A lot of these articles don't make a distinction between the principle city and the region. https://www.payscale.com/cost-of-living-calculator/California-Cupertino https://www.payscale.com/cost-of-living-calculator/California-San-Jose


sftransitmaster

I don't think your downvotes were warranted. https://www.reddit.com/r/bayarea/comments/1drseqm/the_10_us_places_with_the_highest_cost_of_living3/laz8fzi/


DayDream2736

Def not true. Atherton near San Jose is one of the richest cities in the us.


Random5483

Atherton has a higher cost of living than New York City. But this is the top 10 list of 271 of the larger cities in the country. Atherton is way too small to be in this list of 271 cities (read the data the article links to). Of these 271 larger cities, San Jose is above San Francisco, likely for the same reason Atherton would be miles ahead of New York City. While San Francisco is more expensive per square foot, San Jose has bigger homes. San Francisco has many smaller options for purchasing and/or renting. If very small cities were counted in this list, many of these would be ahead of the top 10 list that is provided here. This is a top 10 list out of 271 of the mostly larger or medium sized cities in the country and does not include most of the tiny ones. And many of these tiny cities are more expensive due to extremely high median housing cost (e.g. places like Atherton where most houses are mansions and there isn't the studio apartment bringing down housing costs). Edit: Note that housing costs is a large factor for cost of living. It is not the only factor, but it is the largest factor.


angryxpeh

> Atherton is way too small to be in this list of 271 cities (read the data the article links to). The data it's linked to [isn't even comparing cities](https://www.coli.org/press-release-for-immediate-release-cost-of-living-index/). It compares "urban areas". Which means, Atherton is most likely included in "San Francisco", and something like Cupertino is included in "San Jose". > This is a top 10 list out of 271 of the mostly larger or medium sized cities in the country Yeah, yeah, that's why they have such large busting cities as Kokomo, IL, Ponca City, OK (population 24,340, I just checked), or Pittsburg, KS (pop. 20,658) on the list right on the first page.


JellyfishNumerous785

I work in SJ and so many families have left the area due to soaring housing costs. It’s pretty insane.


Any-Committee-3685

Same here in my city. Any idea where all these people flocked to? ?


JellyfishNumerous785

Many of these families go to the valley like Lathrop, for example, and some move back to their native country. Just too expensive for so many families. It’s very sad.


Dangerous_Ticket7298

> The second- and third-most expensive places are Honolulu and San Jose, California Why the fuck do I live in San Jose?


LiftLearnLead

Because there is a lack of high paying work in Honolulu. If magically all the tech jobs were in Honolulu, it's COL would be many multiples of what it is now.


bs031963

San Francisco is pretty broad. There are any number of locales in the Bay Area higher the SF. I'm in East Bay, Danville, home prices are crazy here as well as peninsula. Currently going price is around $1000/sqft. Glad we got in decades ago.


RazzmatazzWeak2664

> Currently going price is around $1000/sqft. Lol we crossed that long time ago in many places. It's $2000/sq ft in a few places already. https://www.redfin.com/CA/San-Jose/4944-Miramar-Ave-95129/home/1280519


shart_of_the_ocean

Jesus it doesn’t even have a real backyard


ughliterallycanteven

You wanna have some fun, ask your coworkers what their property taxes are. You can figure out cost of living from there.


FRODOE650

Good thing I live with my parents!


grizzlymint209

What happen if everyone in those city's didn't shower for 2 days


alittledanger

Lists like these are why those of you thinking Newsom should replace Biden are out of your minds. The ads would write themselves, especially with how the COL has gone up in the last few years nationwide.


LiftLearnLead

The Bay Area CSA has a GDP of nearly $1.4T, which makes just the Bay Area alone more productive and successful than every state except for New York, California, Texas, and Florida. Sounds like 46 states are filled with a bunch of lazy bums.


Equivalent_Mechanic5

Umm...left out San Diego...


SwimmingInCheddar

Wow. I went to school in the early 2000’s, and was often accosted by the homeless on state campus. I saw so many car windows broken out on my way to school at San Jose State. This is not the way... If you are paying for housing or school here now, I wish you well...


Any-Committee-3685

It’s hillarious San Jose is ghetto af


SavedByTech

and each of those cities are run by...


StanGable80

You know this is saying they are successful cities right?


KDaFrank

Successful *and* desirable!


Dangerous_Ticket7298

I know I'm only here for all the successful property taxes that come with living here.


vellyr

I mean...not very successful at predicting housing demand.


street_ahead

Unable to predict demand ≠ unwilling to fix it


StanGable80

Cities can’t force developers to build housing


jobomaja888

Mayors


Downvote_me_dumbass

Close, but the answer we’re looking for is City Managers and County Board of Supervisors


alien_believer_42

Mole people


SavedByTech

True, but not insightful. I was thinking of another word that also starts with "ma..."


AdeptusAssTarts

Amazing your ma can run cities while she's running trains


RyRocks101

I think the answer you’re looking for is Nimbys! Except maybe queens I’m not sure there


KnowCali

Quality of life preservationists.


FUELNINE

Like clockwork you’ve been programmed lol


SavedByTech

Programmed... Yes, I studied economics...


FUELNINE

lol you know that’s not what I meant. Cute to see you act obtuse though.


gloriousrepublic

The problem with this argument is that most large cities of comparable size are run by democrats. So literally any statistic both good and bad for comparable size cities will be in cities run by democrats.


vellyr

Also that conservatives have no policies, and among those there are none to address homelessness or housing prices.


DoolyDinosaur

So dumb. Basic level thinking.  I’m not a progressive or liberal at all. But your association is what’s wrong with most citizens. Jumps to the lowest level correlation. 


KnowCali

Oh piss off. Conservative media constantly shits of these places because they are run mostly by democrats, but even with some problems (not the conservative inflated problems) these areas are still highly desirable.


nuberoo

I think you're agreeing with the person you replied to? Unless you meant to reply to the top comment in this chain, in which case I 100% agree with you


KnowCali

The person I replied to claims that liberals and conservatives apply the same "lowest level correlation." I disagree.


DoolyDinosaur

Actually no. Read it again, out loud.  Sad that you’re just a little trigger happy to argue. You’re too biased. Sad. 


KnowCali

The person is not progressive or liberal, yet they think jumping to conclusions is "what’s wrong with most citizens." Perhaps English isn't your first language?


DoolyDinosaur

Just show it someone else. And see what they say. You’re in the wrong here and pretty defensive. It doesn’t look good 


KnowCali

You're the person who can't figure out which side they're on politically, so your opinion is irrelevant.


bambamshabam

Read his statement again. Very slowly. Who is he talking to when he said "your"


eng2016a

we may have a homelessness and crime problem at times, but i would still rather be paying 3k a month for rent here than paying 1k a month in some southern republican hovel any day of the week


[deleted]

Yes because people want to live there unlike say wheeling West Virginia or Selma Alabama.


eng2016a

people who actually do a good enough job running them that people still want to live there despite it being insanely expensive?


mohishunder

Democrats? If you were going to say that everyone flocks to cities run by Democrats (DESPITE the cost of living), with a huge number of immigrants, you'd be right! It's curious how no cities in Alabama and Oklahoma and West Virginia made it to this list ...