With the Charleston area being named the top moving destination in the U.S., we thought it would be a great time to talk about the Holy City’s cost of living.

We’ll start with a couple of quick stats:

○ The median household income in Charleston County is $57,882 (according to the U.S. Census Bureau) – which is slightly higher than the median household incomes of South Carolina ($48,781) and the United States ($57,652).
○ There’s a big difference in our housing costs compared to the average across S.C. + the rest of the country. According to numbers from Sperling’s Best Places, the median cost to buy a home in Charleston is $316,500 – nationwide, it’s just $231,000, and in S.C., it’s $170,000.

100 = national average | Chart via Bestplaces.net

We played around on Bestplaces.net’s cost of living calculator to see how Charleston’s cost of living compares to other nearby cities.
Here's how we stack up.

Columbia | 24.4% less expensive

The populations of Columbia + Charleston are almost identical, but the price tag to live in the capital city is considerably less expensive. Housing costs alone are more than 56.8% cheaper in COLA.

Greenville | **19.5*% less*** expensive

Life in the Upstate’s biggest city is a little pricier than Columbia – but still considerably cheaper than Charleston. While costs associated with health + utilities are similar, there's a bigger disparity when it comes to those associated with housingand transportation.

Asheville | **4.9*% less*** expensive

Asheville may be the smallest city we’re comparing—but it has the most similar COL. Yet again, the biggest offender here is housing– the median home cost in Charleston is $316,500 vs. $286,900 in Asheville. Whatever. We prefer the beach over the mountains, anyway.

Charlotte | 11.3% less expensive

Once again, housing costs less– a Charlotte less– in N.C.’s most populous city than here in the Lowcountry. The median home cost in Charleston is $261,400 vs. $169,700 in Charlotte. Interestingly though, in Charlotte, transportation + health costs are slightly higher than in Charleston.

Raleigh | 8.3% less expensive

Like CHS, Raleigh is experiencing rapid growth + development. Despite it being about 4x larger in terms of population, Raleigh is about 8.3% less expensive than Charleston.

Atlanta | 3.6% less expensive

Okay, this one made us say, "Hoooly Cit-y!" Can you believe it’s cheaper to live in Atlanta than in Charleston? Actually, if you live here, you probably can. Just about everything in Charleston is more expensive than it is in Hotlanta, save for transportation – it costs about 30.4% more to get around ATL.

The biggest takeaway here: housing costs are through the roof (pun intended). I decided to see how Charleston stacks up against America’s biggest cities—and it was a little relieving.

NYC | 67.9% more expensive
Housing costs in New York are 115% more than in Charleston.

San Francisco | 141.5% more expensive
Housing costs in San Fran are more than three times that of Charleston. The median home cost over there? A cool $1.3 million. Woof.

Maybe Chris Farley was really onto something…

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Note: Miscellaneous costs include clothing, restaurants, repairs, entertainment, + other services.

Quiz

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