This statistic shows the most expensive cities for five star hotels worldwide as of December 2014. According to the GoEuro Accommodation Price Index, Punta Cana was the most expensive city with an average cost of 1,323 U.S. dollars per night.

In the last quarter of 2024, three of the ten most expensive cities in the United States for business travel when it comes to food costs were located in California. However, the ranking was topped by Honolulu, which average daily food cost amounted to 118 U.S. dollars at that time.

This statistic shows the most expensive cities for five-star hotels worldwide in 2017, ranked by the hotel prices paid by U.S. travelers. Travelers from the United States paid an average of 557 U.S. dollars per night for five-star hotels in Reykjavik, Iceland.

As of October 2024, the city with the most expensive hotel rate in the United States was Boston. Visitors to the East Coast city could expect to pay 320 U.S. dollars for a doube room during that period. Meanwhile, New York ranked third with an average rate of 284 U.S. dollars.

As of mid-2024, Montevideo ranked as the second Latin American and Caribbean metropolis with the highest cost of living index. The Uruguayan capital obtained an index score of 54.1, only second to Port of Spain, in Trinidad and Tobago, with 56.4 points. Monterrey and Panama City were the third and fourth most expensive cities to live in Latin America and the Caribbean that year, with scores surpassing 45 points each.

West Virginia and Kansas had the lowest cost of living across all U.S. states, with composite costs being half of those found in Hawaii. This was according to a composite index that compares prices for various goods and services on a state-by-state basis. In West Virginia, the cost of living index amounted to 84.8 - well below the national benchmark of 100. Nevada - which had an index value of 100.1 - was only slightly above that benchmark. Expensive places to live included Hawaii, Massachusetts, and California Housing costs in the U.S. Housing is usually the highest expense in a household’s budget. In 2023, the average house sold for approximately 427,000 U.S. dollars, but house prices in the Northeast and West regions were significantly higher. Conversely, the South had some of the least expensive housing. In West Virginia, Mississippi, and Louisiana, the median price of the typical single-family home was less than 200,000 U.S. dollars. That makes living costs in these states significantly lower than in states such as Hawaii and California, where housing is much more expensive. What other expenses affect the cost of living? Utility costs such as electricity, natural gas, water, and internet also influence the cost of living. In Alaska, Hawaii, and Connecticut, the average monthly utility cost exceeded 500 U.S. dollars. That was because of the significantly higher prices for electricity and natural gas in these states.

As of March 2024, the cost of living in Bogota was the highest among major Colombian cities. In total, the average cost per month amounted to 883 U.S. dollars. Cartagena followed in the ranking, with a monthly cost of living of 877 U.S. dollars at that time.

Cities in the United States dominate the list of the cities with the highest rents worldwide. New York was ranked as the most expensive city to rent in ahead of Singapore with an index score of 100. Hamilton in Canada followed in third.

Of the most populous cities in the U.S., San Jose, California had the highest annual income requirement at 288,953 U.S. dollars annually for homeowners to have an affordable and comfortable life in 2024. This can be compared to Houston, Texas, where homeowners needed an annual income of 87,991 U.S. dollars in 2024.

A dataset listing the 20 richest cities in Colorado for 2024, including information on rank, city, county, population, average income, and median income.

In the first quarter of 2024, Amsterdam was the most expensive city to rent a furnished one-bedroom apartment among the 23 leading European cities surveyed. At 2,300 euros per month, rent in Amsterdam was more than twice as high as in Brussels. Amsterdam was also the most expensive city to rent a private room.One of the main factors driving high rents across European cities is the same as any other consumer-driven business. If demand outweighs supply, prices will inflate. The drive for high paid professionals to be located centrally in prime locations, mixed with the low levels of available space, high land, and construction costs, all help keep rental prices increasing.

The price of tap water in the United States varied greatly from city to city in 2021. One of the most expensive cities for tap water in the U.S. is San Francisco, where one cubic meter costs an average of 6.07 U.S. dollars per cubic meter. In comparison, citizens in the Arizona state capital of Phoenix paid, on average, 0.96 U.S. dollars per cubic meter. This is roughly 63 percent lower than the U.S. average.

Rising water bills in the U.S.

Over the past decade, water bills in the U.S. have increased considerably in a number of major cities. In Austin, Texas, water bills rose by 869 U.S. dollars between 2010 and 2018, an increase of 154 percent. The sharp rising costs has left many in the United States with unaffordable water bills, especially in low income areas in cities such as New Orleans, Cleveland, and Santa Fe.

U.S. water crisis

One of the reasons for the rising water bills in the U.S. is the aging and deteriorating water infrastructure. In addition to rising bills, outdated treatment plants with leaking pipes have resulted in harmful toxins and chemicals contaminating drinking water. A number of highly populated cities in the U.S. have been found to have high concentrations of PFAs in tap water, exposing millions of people to potentially unsafe drinking water.

Montevideo, Uruguay's capital, leads Latin American cities with the highest apartment sale prices in 2024, averaging 3,454 U.S. dollars per square meter. This figure surpasses other major metropolitan areas like Mexico City and Buenos Aires, highlighting significant disparities in real estate markets across the region. The data underscores the varying economic conditions and housing demand in different Latin American urban centers. Regional housing market trends While Montevideo tops the list for apartment prices, other countries in Latin America have experienced notable changes in their housing markets. Chile, for instance, saw the most substantial increase in house prices since 2010, with its nominal house price index surpassing 342 points in early 2024. However, when adjusted for inflation, Mexico showed the highest inflation-adjusted percentage increase in house prices, growing by nearly five percent in the first quarter of 2024, contrasting with a global decline of one percent. Home financing in Mexico The methods of home financing vary across Latin America. A breakdown of homeownership by financing method in Mexico reveals that about two-thirds of owner-occupied housing units were financed through personal resources in 2022. Nevertheless, government-backed loans such as Infonavit (Mexico’s National Housing Fund Institute), Fovissste (Housing Fund of the Institute for Social Security and Services for State Workers), and Fonhapo (National Fund for Popular Housing), play an important role for homebuyers, with just over 20 percent of home purchases relying on such finance. Bank credit, which offers mortgage loans with interest rates ranging between nine and 12 percent, appeared as a less popular option.

Puerto Madero in Buenos Aires, Argentina, was one of the most expensive neighborhoods for residential property in Latin America in 2023, with an average square meter price of almost 5,500 U.S. dollars per square meter. Ipanema in Rio de Janeiro and Del Valle in Monterrey completed the top three with average price of about 4,000 U.S. dollars per square meter respectively.

Hawaii is the state with the highest household electricity price in the United States. In September 2024, the average retail price of electricity for Hawaiian residences amounted to 41.27 U.S. cents per kilowatt-hour. California followed in second, with 30.221 U.S. cents per kilowatt-hour. Meanwhile, Utah registered the lowest price in the period, at around 11.4 U.S. cents per kilowatt-hour. Why is electricity so expensive in Hawaii? Fossil fuels, and specifically oil, account for approximately 80 percent of Hawaii’s electricity mix, so the electricity price in this state can be roughly brought down to the price of oil in the country. Oil was by far the most expensive fossil fuel used for electricity generation in the country. As Hawaii depends on oil imports, the cost of transportation and infrastructure must be added to the oil price. Electricity prices worldwide The U.S. retail price for electricity increased almost every year since 1990. In 2023, it stood at 12.7 U.S. cents per kilowatt-hour, almost double the charge put on electricity back in 1990. However, household electricity prices are around 25 U.S. dollar cents per kilowatt-hour lower in the U.S. when compared to European countries reliant on energy imports, such as Germany and Italy.

The average price of detached and duplex houses in the biggest cities in Germany varied between approximately 4,500 euros and 10,000 euros per square meter in 2024. Housing was most expensive in Munich, where the square meter price of houses amounted to 9,806 euros. Conversely, Berlin was most affordable, with the square meter price at 4,512 euros. How have German house prices evolved? House prices maintained an upward trend for more than a decade, with 2020 and 2021 experiencing exceptionally high growth rates. In 2021, the nominal year-on-year change exceeded 10 percent. Nevertheless, the second half of 2022 saw the market slowing, with the annual percentage change turning negative for the first time in 12 years. Another way to examine the price growth is through the house price index, which uses 2015 as a base. At its peak in 2022, the German house price index measured about 166 percent, which means that a house bought in 2015 would have appreciated by 66 percent. Is housing affordable in Germany? Housing affordability depends greatly on income: High-income areas often tend to have more expensive housing, which does not necessarily make them unaffordable. The house price to income index measures the development of the cost of housing relative to income. In the first quarter of 2024, the index value stood at 110, meaning that since 2015, house price growth has outpaced income growth by about 10 percent. Compared with the average for the euro area, this value was lower.

In the last quarter of 2024, San Francisco, New York, and Honolulu were some of the U.S. cities with the highest housing construction costs. Meanwhile, Phoenix had one of the lowest construction costs for high-end multifamily homes at 280 U.S. dollars per square foot and Las Vegas for single-family homes between 235 and 470 U.S. dollars per square foot. Construction cost disparities As seen here, the construction cost for a high-end multi-family home in San Francisco in the first quarter of 2024 was over twice more expensive than in Phoenix. Meanwhile, there were also great differences in the cost of building a single-family house in New York and in Portland or Seattle. Some factors that may cause these disparities are the construction materials, installation, and composite costs, differing land values, wages, etc. For example, although the price of construction materials in the U.S. was rising at a slower level than in 2022 and 2023, several materials that are essential in most construction projects had growth rates of over five percent in 2024. Growing industry revenue Despite the economic uncertainty and other challenges, the size of the private construction market in the U.S. rose during the past years. It is important to consider that supply and demand for housing influences the revenue of this segment of the construction market. On the supply side, single-family home construction fell in 2023, but it is expected to rise in 2024 and 2025. On the demand side, some of the U.S. metropolitan areas with the highest sale prices of single-family homes were located in California, with San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara at the top of the ranking.

In 2023, the annual rent of a retail space in Upper 5th Avenue (49th to 60th Sts) in New York amounted to 2,000 U.S. dollars per square foot, making it the most expensive high street worldwide. Via Montenapoleone in Milan and Tsim Sha Tsui in Hong Kong completed the top three, with prime rents amounting to 1,766 U.S. dollars and 1,493 U.S. dollars, respectively.

Zurich in Switzerland was the most expensive business travel destination in Europe based on the average daily hotel costs in 2020. That year, Zurich's average fee for hotels amounted to roughly 243 U.S. dollars. Another Swiss city, Geneva, ranked second on the list in 2020, with daily hotel costs of around 240 U.S. dollars.

As of April 2024, the city that had the most expensive Michelin-starred restaurants was Copenhagen, Denmark, by a large margin. That year, tasting menus at restaurants in Copenhagen that were awarded between one and three Michelin stars had a median price of 443 U.S. dollars. Second in the ranking was Macao, a special administrative region of China, with tasting menus averaging 283 U.S. dollars.