What it really costs to live comfortably in America's 50 biggest cities: report
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A list published by GOBankingRates is going viral because it shows just how much it costs to live in America's 50 biggest cities in 2024's economy.
The list, put together by measuring data from U.S. Census, Zillow, BestPlaces and the Bureau of Labor Statistics, determines "living comfortably" as needs not exceeding 50% of one's income.
This is known as the 50-30-20 rule or plan, where 50% of one's income meets the costs of living, 30% is expendable, and 20% remains in savings.
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Of the top eight most expensive cities in the U.S., California's biggest population hubs take up a whopping six spots on the list.
The least expensive city on the GOBankingRates' list requires a salary of just under $65,000 per year, and the most expensive ranks even more than $250,000 to live comfortably.
Skyline and urban skyline of Detroit. Soft light on an overcast day over the river. (Roberto Machado Noa/LightRocket via Getty Images / Getty Images)
The largest and least expensive city to move to in 2024? Detroit, Michigan is the financially friendliest city to live in with an estimated "comfortable" salary of $64,849 and estimated cost of living at $32,424.
Detroit also has a high rate of residents leaving, with 8,871 moving out of the motor city between 2021 and 2022.
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The big city with the highest required salary to live comfortably is San Jose, California with a whopping $265,926 needed to pay a $132,963 cost of living annually. San Francisco isn't far behind in the number two slot, at $252,878 being the necessary salary to live comfortably.
Nearly 15,000 people moved out of San Francisco between 2021 and 2022, according to the data provided.
Two Bay Area, California cities have the highest cost of living in the country according to a list published by GOBankingRates. (Matias Baglietto/NurPhoto via Getty Images / Getty Images)
Phoenix, Arizona grew the most population-wise, gaining 18,337 residents between 2021 and 2022. Their estimated population is now 1,609,456. The cost of living in the state capital is around $54,460 annually.
The city with the highest population loss in the same time frame is New York City, losing 113,580 residents. The required salary to live there comfortably according to GOBankingRates is $175,909.
In an aerial view, the downtown skyline is seen during a heat wave on July 15, 2023 in Phoenix, Arizona. Weather forecasts today are expecting temperatures to reach 115 degrees. The Phoenix area is grappling with record-breaking temperatures as prolo (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
The cost of living has risen across the country over the past few years, as has the national debt. The Inflation Reduction Act, passed a little over two years ago during the Biden administration, with the purported aim of reducing Americans' cost of living. Vice President Kamala Harris cast the deciding, tie-breaking vote in the Senate in favor of the IRA. President Biden signed it into law in August 2022.
Inflation averaged out in 2022 at 8.0%, according to Investopedia, a 40-year high. In 2023, the average rate of inflation was 4.1%. In contrast, for the 2020 fiscal year, the average rate of inflation was 1.2%
The U.S. Treasury estimates that the IRA will add $800 billion to the federal budget over the next 10 years. The US national debt currently stands at about $35 trillion, up from about $26 trillion in 2020, according to the US Treasury.
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Inflation has steadily declined over the past year, with the CPI for August 2024 measuring at 2.5%, but prices for household goods, housing, and energy remain higher than 2020-2021 levels.