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.

In 2023, the annual cost for a private room in an assisted living facility in the U.S. amounted to 64,200 U.S. dollars. However, costs varied greatly from one state to another. The most expensive states for a private room in assisted living was found in Hawaii, followed by Maine and Vermont.

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.

Damascus in Syria was ranked as the least expensive city worldwide in 2023, with an index score of 13 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. Buenos Aires is the Latin American city with the highest costs of living, as Argentina has recently faced an economic crisis and rapidly rising inflation. On the other hand, Singapore and Zurich were ranked the most expensive cities in the world.

In the United States, Hawaii was the state with the most expensive housing, with the typical value of single-family homes in the 35th to 65th percentile range exceeding 981,000 U.S. dollars. Unsurprisingly, Hawaii also ranked top as the state with the highest cost of living. Meanwhile, a property was the least expensive in West Virginia, where it cost under 167,000 U.S. dollars to buy the typical single-family home. Single-family home prices increased across most states in the United States between December 2023 and December 2024, except in Louisiana, Florida, and the District of Colombia. According to the Federal Housing Association, house appreciation in 13 states exceeded nine percent in 2023.

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

Singapore and New York were ranked as the most expensive cities worldwide with an index of 100 out of a possible 100. Three of the 11 most expensive cities were in the United States, whereas two were in Switzerland.

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.

Telluride, CO, was the most expensive market for luxury single-family home market in the United States in 2025. In February that year, the median sales price of a single-family home in Telluride was 4.5 million U.S. dollars. Ft. Lauderdale, FL, and Park City, UT were other locations that fetched prices over four million U.S. dollars.

There were approximately 18.58 million college students in the U.S. in 2022, with around 13.49 million enrolled in public colleges and a further 5.09 million students enrolled in private colleges. The figures are projected to remain relatively constant over the next few years.

What is the most expensive college in the U.S.? The overall number of higher education institutions in the U.S. totals around 4,000, and California is the state with the most. One important factor that students – and their parents – must consider before choosing a college is cost. With annual expenses totaling almost 78,000 U.S. dollars, Harvey Mudd College in California was the most expensive college for the 2021-2022 academic year. There are three major costs of college: tuition, room, and board. The difference in on-campus and off-campus accommodation costs is often negligible, but they can change greatly depending on the college town.

The differences between public and private colleges Public colleges, also called state colleges, are mostly funded by state governments. Private colleges, on the other hand, are not funded by the government but by private donors and endowments. Typically, private institutions are  much more expensive. Public colleges tend to offer different tuition fees for students based on whether they live in-state or out-of-state, while private colleges have the same tuition cost for every student.

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.

The median sales price of the existing privately owned single-family homes in the United States increased slightly in 2024. The most expensive homes were found in San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA, where the median sales price was 1.9 million U.S. dollars. Hawaii and Delaware experienced the strongest home appreciation.

In a public two-year institution for commuters, the total undergraduate budget for the 2024/2025 academic year in the United States was 20,570 U.S. dollars, including 4,050 U.S. dollars for tuition and fees. For private, nonprofit four-year institutions where students lived on campus, the total estimated budget clocked in at 62,990 U.S. dollars, making it the most expensive option for undergraduates.

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.

Rooftop solar photovoltaic installations on residential buildings and nuclear power have the highest unsubsidized levelized costs of energy generation in the United States. If it wasn't for federal and state subsidies, rooftop solar PV would come with a price tag between 122 and 284 U.S. dollars per megawatt-hour. Rooftop installations have a higher levelized cost range due to their relatively small capacity when compared with utility-scale power plant facilities. LCOE for solar PV Levelized cost of electricity or energy generation (LCOE) is a measure used to compare cost efficiency of different electricity generating technologies. It describes the average expense of building and maintaining a power plant divided by its total power output over the facility’s lifetime. The global levelized cost of electricity for solar PV averaged 0.04 U.S. dollars per kilowatt-hour in 2023. The economic viability of solar PV installations is dependent on a variety of factors largely centering around topography and the predominant weather pattern at the installation site. In regions with high sunshine duration, installing solar PV would come with lower LCOE’s as electricity production may be higher. As countries may stretch across highly variable topography and even across climate zones, solar PV LCOE may also vary greatly within a country. The U.S. has some of the lowest LCOE’s for utility-scale solar PV. Capital costs by energy technology In terms of capital costs – the one-time expense arising from the purchase of land, construction material, and building of the power plant for new power plants expected to come live in 2028, offshore wind power is the most expensive in the United States. It had an estimated levelized capital costs of roughly 89.6 U.S. dollars per megawatt-hour as of March 2023. Capital costs for solar PV are comparatively low.

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

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

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

The median sales price of existing single-family homes in the United States was the highest in the West region. In 2023, the median sales price for a home in the West region of the United States amounted to approximately 603,000 U.S. dollars.

Eggs US decreased 2.89 USD/DOZEN or 49.69% since the beginning of 2025, according to trading on a contract for difference (CFD) that tracks the benchmark market for this commodity. This dataset includes a chart with historical data for Eggs US.