Cost of living & value
Most expensive small US cities
The priciest places under 150k people, where a small-town address hides a big-city cost.
Cost is not just a big-city problem. These small cities (25k to 150k residents) carry the highest cost-of-living index in their size class.
Published by WhereToHQ research. Calculated from committed source data with no generated editorial text.
What the ranking shows
- Palo Alto, CA leads this list at 228 for cost of living index.
- Across the 15 published entries, cost of living index ranges from 180 to 228. The other columns show tradeoffs that the headline order cannot capture.
| # | City | Cost of living index | Median home price | 2-bedroom rent | Median household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Palo Alto, CA67k | 228 | $2,000,001 | $3,501/mo | $231,101 |
| 2 | Newport Beach, CA84k | 226 | $2,000,001 | $3,323/mo | $156,867 |
| 3 | Mountain View, CA84k | 222 | $1,927,000 | $3,340/mo | $189,917 |
| 4 | Redwood City, CA82k | 215 | $1,801,700 | $3,366/mo | $157,814 |
| 5 | San Mateo, CA103k | 206 | $1,618,700 | $3,424/mo | $153,504 |
| 6 | Santa Monica, CA91k | 205 | $1,755,500 | $2,834/mo | $114,885 |
| 7 | Santa Clara, CA130k | 200 | $1,582,600 | $3,153/mo | $178,958 |
| 8 | Encinitas, CA61k | 200 | $1,646,800 | $2,904/mo | $162,229 |
| 9 | Pleasanton, CA77k | 197 | $1,537,100 | $3,088/mo | $190,124 |
| 10 | Santa Barbara, CA88k | 194 | $1,570,800 | $2,772/mo | $106,182 |
| 11 | San Ramon, CA86k | 194 | $1,509,500 | $3,000/mo | $196,161 |
| 12 | Dublin, CA71k | 186 | $1,317,100 | $3,216/mo | $214,385 |
| 13 | Milpitas, CA79k | 184 | $1,251,700 | $3,276/mo | $178,798 |
| 14 | San Clemente, CA63k | 182 | $1,398,400 | $2,572/mo | $140,062 |
| 15 | Berkeley, CA120k | 180 | $1,413,900 | $2,413/mo | $108,092 |
Ranked from public data we track (US Census/ACS, BLS, EIA, FEMA, NOAA, Tax Foundation) and recomputed on every data refresh. Figures are estimates for comparison, not advice; open any city to see all facets.
Candidate rules: 25,000 to 150,000 residents. Ranking rule: Cost of living index, highest first.
WhereToHQ loads at most the 500 largest eligible national candidates, or 300 candidates for a state list, before applying the published rules. Missing values are excluded from a direct sort or hard filter. In a weighted score, an unknown value is neutral rather than favorable.