Among the largest cities in the United States, renting an apartment was most affordable in Wichita, KS, in 2024. On average, renters in Wichita could rent an 1,359 square foot apartment for 1,500 U.S. dollars. The average apartment rent varies widely across different metros and states, with Hawaii, California, and Washington D.C. fetching the most expensive rents.

In 2019, Oklahoma was the least expensive city in the United States for ridesharing, with an average of 9.91 U.S. dollars per trip. During the same year, New York was the most expensive city in the U.S. for a rideshare, with an average of 18.73 U.S. dollars per ride.

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.

There is more to housing affordability than the rent or mortgage you pay. Transportation costs are the second-biggest budget item for most families, but it can be difficult for people to fully factor transportation costs into decisions about where to live and work. The Location Affordability Index (LAI) is a user-friendly source of standardized data at the neighborhood (census tract) level on combined housing and transportation costs to help consumers, policymakers, and developers make more informed decisions about where to live, work, and invest. Compare eight household profiles (see table below) —which vary by household income, size, and number of commuters—and see the impact of the built environment on affordability in a given location while holding household demographics constant.*$11,880 for a single person household in 2016 according to US Dept. of Health and Human Services: https://aspe.hhs.gov/computations-2016-poverty-guidelinesThis layer is symbolized by the percentage of housing and transportation costs as a percentage of income for the Median-Income Family profile, but the costs as a percentage of income for all household profiles are listed in the pop-up:Also available is a gallery of 8 web maps (one for each household profile) all symbolized the same way for easy comparison: Median-Income Family, Very Low-Income Individual, Working Individual, Single Professional, Retired Couple, Single-Parent Family, Moderate-Income Family, and Dual-Professional Family.An accompanying story map provides side-by-side comparisons and additional context.--Variables used in HUD's calculations include 24 measures such as people per household, average number of rooms per housing unit, monthly housing costs (mortgage/rent as well as utility and maintenance expenses), average number of cars per household, median commute distance, vehicle miles traveled per year, percent of trips taken on transit, street connectivity and walkability (measured by block density), and many more.To learn more about the Location Affordability Index (v.3) visit: https://www.hudexchange.info/programs/location-affordability-index/. There you will find some background and an FAQ page, which includes the question:"Manhattan, San Francisco, and downtown Boston are some of the most expensive places to live in the country, yet the LAI shows them as affordable for the typical regional household. Why?" These areas have some of the lowest transportation costs in the country, which helps offset the high cost of housing. The area median income (AMI) in these regions is also high, so when costs are shown as a percent of income for the typical regional household these neighborhoods appear affordable; however, they are generally unaffordable to households earning less than the AMI.Date of Coverage: 2012-2016 Date Released: March 2019Date Downloaded from HUD Open Data: 4/18/19Further Documentation:LAI Version 3 Data and MethodologyLAI Version 3 Technical Documentation_**The documentation below is in reference to this items placement in the NM Supply Chain Data Hub. The documentation is of use to understanding the source of this item, and how to reproduce it for updates**

Title: Location Affordability Index - NMCDC Copy

Summary: This layer contains the Location Affordability Index from U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) - standardized household, housing, and transportation cost estimates by census tract for 8 household profiles.

Notes: This map is copied from source map: https://nmcdc.maps.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=de341c1338c5447da400c4e8c51ae1f6, created by dianaclavery_uo, and identified in Living Atlas.

Prepared by: dianaclavery_uo, copied by EMcRae_NMCDC

Source: This map is copied from source map: https://nmcdc.maps.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=de341c1338c5447da400c4e8c51ae1f6, created by dianaclavery_uo, and identified in Living Atlas. Check the source documentation or other details above for more information about data sources.

Feature Service: https://nmcdc.maps.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=447a461f048845979f30a2478b9e65bb

UID: 73

Data Requested: Family income spent on basic need

Method of Acquisition: Search for Location Affordability Index in the Living Atlas. Make a copy of most recent map available. To update this map, copy the most recent map available. In a new tab, open the AGOL Assistant Portal tool and use the functions in the portal to copy the new maps JSON, and paste it over the old map (this map with item id

Date Acquired: Map copied on May 10, 2022

Priority rank as Identified in 2022 (scale of 1 being the highest priority, to 11 being the lowest priority): 6

Tags: PENDING

Damascus in Syria was ranked as the least expensive city worldwide in 2023, with an index score of ** out of 100. The country has been marred by civil war over the last decade, hitting the country's economy hard. Other cities in the Middle East and North Africa, such as Tehran, Tripoli, and Tunis, are also present on the list. On the other hand, Singapore and Zurich were ranked the most expensive cities in the world.

According to the European Backpacker Price Index for 2025, Zurich in Switzerland was the most expensive destination for budget travelers. The average daily cost in that city – based on prices for a cheap hostel, budget meals, public transport, and a limited budget for entertainment – amounted to almost 164 U.S. dollars as of January 2025. In comparison, the same trip to Budapest, one of the most affordable cities for backpacking in Europe, would have cost less than 50 U.S. dollars per day.

In 2022, Salt Lake City, Utah, had the least affordable housing among the top ten metros with the highest share of Gen Z home buyers in the United States. The average requested mortgage loan amount by Gen Zers was 340,000 U.S. dollars. Between 18 and 23 percent of mortgage applications in the metros included in this statistic came from Gen Z home buyers. While house prices do in fact influence Gen Zers' choice, Salt Lake City, UT, had both the largest share of Gen Z mortgage requests and the highest loan amount.

This statistic shows the costs of a night out for two people in the least expensive United States cities in 2014. In Orlando, Florida, the average cost of a two-course meal for two people was 78.38 U.S. dollars.

This table contains data on the average cost of a market basket of nutritious food items relative to income for female-headed households with children, for California, its regions, counties, and cities/towns. The ratio uses data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Census Bureau. The table is part of a series of indicators in the Healthy Communities Data and Indicators Project of the Office of Health Equity. An adequate, nutritious diet is a necessity at all stages of life. Inadequate diets can impair intellectual performance and have been linked to more frequent school absence and poorer educational achievement in children. Nutrition also plays a significant role in causing or preventing a number of illnesses, such as cardiovascular disease, some cancers, obesity, type 2 diabetes, and anemia. At least two factors influence the affordability of food and the dietary choices of families – the cost of food and family income. The inability to afford food is a major factor in food insecurity, which has a spectrum of effects including anxiety over food sufficiency or food shortages; reduced quality or desirability of diet; and disrupted eating patterns and reduced food intake. More information about the data table and a data dictionary can be found in the Attachments.

This is a historical measure for Strategic Direction 2023. For more data on Austin demographics please visit austintexas.gov/demographics. Austin's share of regional households whose income is less than 60% of Median Family Income and the change since 2016​. Austin's share of regional households whose income is less than 60% of Median Family Income and the change in that share since 2016. This metric helps us to understand where low income households live in the Austin area since some lower income households may be forced to move from the city to the outskirts in order to seek more affordable housing opportunities. The data source for this measure is the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates, table S1901. The percentage of all Austin MSA households whose income is less than 60% median family income (MFI) within the City of Austin was calculated by dividing the number of households whose income is less than 60% MFI in Austin by the number of households whose income is less than 60% MFI in the Austin MSA.

The graph depictsts the most expensive cities in the U.S. concerning hotel room costs in 2010. In Miami the average price was at 139.58$ in 2010.

In 2024, New York, NY, was the most expensive rental market for one-bedroom apartments in the United States. The median monthly rental rate of an apartment in New York was 4,280 U.S. dollars, while in San Francisco, CA which ranked second highest, renters paid on average 3,160 U.S. dollars.

How many incorporated places are registered in the U.S.?

There were 19,502 incorporated places registered in the United States as of July 31, 2019. 16,410 had a population under 10,000 while, in contrast, only 10 cities had a population of one million or more.

Small-town America

Suffice it to say, almost nothing is more idealized in the American imagination than small-town America. When asked where they would prefer to live, 30 percent of Americans reported that they would prefer to live in a small town. Americans tend to prefer small-town living due to a perceived slower pace of life, close-knit communities, and a more affordable cost of living when compared to large cities.

An increasing population

Despite a preference for small-town life, metropolitan areas in the U.S. still see high population figures, with the New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago metro areas being the most populous in the country. Metro and state populations are projected to increase by 2040, so while some may move to small towns to escape city living, those small towns may become more crowded in the upcoming decades.

New York was the most expensive U.S. city for business travelers in the last quarter of 2024, with the daily cost of accommodation, food, and car hire totaling 660 U.S. dollars. In the second place was Boston, where business tourists spent around 480 U.S. dollars each day on average.

This statistic presents the cities in the U.S. with the least expensive legal, medical and recreational, dispensary marijuana prices, as of January 29, 2016, in U.S. dollars. As of this time, the city of Aurora in Colorado had the lowest legal marijuana dispensary prices, with one ounce costing an average of 192 U.S. dollars for midlevel marijuana.

This statistic presents the most expensive cities for automobile insurance in the United States in 2014. Detroit proved to be the most expensive U.S. city for auto insurance, with an average car insurance price of 10,723 U.S. dollars.

This statistic shows the most expensive cities for hotels in the United States as of June 2013. New York was the most expensive U.S. city for hotels as of June 2013 with a median hotel rate of 245 U.S. dollars.

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.

As of April 2024, the city that had the least expensive Michelin-starred restaurants was Chengdu, China. That year, tasting menus at restaurants in Chengdu that were awarded between one and three Michelin stars had a median price of 88 U.S. dollars. Second in the ranking was Vancouver, Canada, with tasting menus averaging 113 U.S. dollars.

This statistic shows the least expensive cities for five-star hotels worldwide in 2017, ranked by the hotel prices paid by U.S. travelers. Travelers from the United States spent an average of 129 U.S. dollars per night in five-star hotels in Istanbul, Turkey in 2017.