Cost Of Living In Cities Around The World

Before we dig into some interesting, if not (potentially) depressing numbers on cost of living around the world, an update on yesterday’s Juice and a quick look ahead. 

On Monday, we told you that Nvidia (NVDA) surpassed 1,000,000 pageviews in Trackstar. An impressive feat, not only for crossing the unprecedented one million mark, but also for crushing every other name in the market. As you can see at the top of today’s page, NVDA has dipped below a million, but still commands way more than double the search interest we’re seeing in #2 Tesla (TSLA) and #3 Apple (AAPL). 

Interesting and fun to keep tabs on, no doubt, but Trackstar is about more than raw numbers. As we explained, monitoring search interest across our 100+ financial media partners helps us do our jobs better:

At The Juice, we use Trackstar in many ways. Primarily, we do it to uncover ETFs you might want to consider as additions to your portfolio. ETFs that can help you diversify around your core holdings. 

An edition of The Juice from earlier this month makes for a great place to start to see how we do this and to take a look at some ETF ideas. In that installment, we also used Trackstar to find an AI Growth Stock With A Solid Dividend that flies under the radar. Trackstar brought it to our attention.

And we do it again tomorrow as Trackstar data contributes to a Juice where we’ll look at different compositions in growth stock ETFs. Keep your eye on your inbox for that one. 

Then, on Thursday, we take a look at the exorbitant cost of buying and maintaining a new or used car today. We talk a lot about housing and the cost of eating and drinking out, but driving — a necessity for many, if not most people in the United States — is a major factor contributing to our current cost of living crisis. 

Which leads us to a look at overall cost of living — around the world — via data from Numbeo. 

The Juice likes Numbeo’s data for several reasons. 

It’s different in presentation and methodology for several key factors:

• It considers not only housing (using rent as the metric), but also groceries and restaurant prices. 
• It calculates a local purchasing power number which quantifies “the relative purchasing power in a given city based on the average net salary. A domestic purchasing power of 40 means that residents with an average salary can afford, on average, 60% less goods and services compared to residents of New York City with an average salary.”
• And, as introduced in the last bullet point, it uses New York City as the baseline. So, on the cost of living metrics, New York City is set at 100. If a city scores 120, it’s 20% more expensive than NYC. if a city scores 50, it’s 50% less expensive than NYC. 

Some interesting takeaways. 

While Geneva and Zurich, Switzerland take the top two spots with scores of 102.7 and 101.3, respectively, the United States dominates most of the remainder of the top ten most expensive cities in the world. 

New York City is #3 at the aforementioned baseline of 100, followed by:

• #4: San Francisco, 91.2
• #5: Boston, 86.5
• #6: Reykjavik, Iceland, 85.8
• #7: Washington, DC, 82.8
• #8: Seattle, 82.7
• #9: Los Angeles, 81.4
• #10: San Diego, 80.8

Once you get out of the top ten, you start seeing non-American cities, including #11 Canberra, Australia (80.4); #14 London (79.7); #23 Paris (74.6); and #70 Montreal (63.6). 

You can explore the Numbeo data yourself to see where you live or where you’re thinking you might want to live ranks. But, generally, there are relative bargains throughout Latin America, Asia and large swaths of Europe. Whether it’s cost of living, political leanings or a mix of both and a whole lot more, at least a subset of Americans are considering a move abroad. 

From a recent CNBC article about a company that helps people move abroad:

A CNBC analysis of U.S. Google search data shows a spike in users searching for terms related to “how to move to X country” beginning in mid-June. Interest swelled following the first 2024 presidential debate between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump on June 27.

It’s been “a crazy week” for Jen Barnett, co-founder of Expatsi, who says traffic to the site is up 800% since the debate.

Likely a whole lot more talk than action. However, it’s certain more than a few people kicking the tires on another country already have or will make the move abroad. 

Numbeo lets you make direct comparisons between places, which really highlights how expensive it is to live in large and medium size U.S. cities. For example, consider Denver. Not necessarily considered on par with New York, LA or San Francisco. 

• Cost of living, including rent, is 10.1% lower in Paris than Denver. 
• Cost of living, including rent, is 31.2% lower in Barcelona than Denver.
• Cost of living, including rent, is 46.6% lower in Mexico City than Denver.

As we have been saying for quite some time, as the mid-range cities, such as Denver, Portland, and Austin, fall, it’s only a matter of time before places like Buffalo, Pittsburgh and Cleveland fall. Fall, as in become either out of reach or financially uncomfortable for an increasing number of people. 

The Bottom Line: Of course, cost of living comparisons are only as good as the data they’re based on. While The Juice thinks Numbeo has good data, it’s incomplete. Plus, if you’re frugal, you can make your money go a lot further in Denver than the person who lives paycheck to paycheck or, better yet, hand to mouth. 

This said, it’s objectively freaking expensive out there. And we’ll continue to cover this reality alongside ways for you to get ahead from personal finance and investing perspectives. Stick with The Juice and please tell a friend to subscribe for free.

• 3 Of The Weirdest Things You Can Invest In
• Dive into Expert Picks – We Spill the Best Daily!
• 10 Best Dividend Growth Stocks to Buy and Hold Now
• Check Out The Juice’s Favorite ETF Screener