Living an urban lifestyle comes at a price, especially for homeowners with children, according to a recent report by Care.com and Zillow.
Between child care, a mortgage and property taxes, households with children in the city spend over $9,000 more each year, on average, than households with children in the suburbs, racking up $43,000-plus in annual expenses. The difference is wider in many of the nation’s largest metropolitan areas, including:
Chicago, Ill.
City: $67,266 (Annual Cost of Child Care, Mortgage and Property Taxes)
Suburb: $48,794
Cost Difference: $18,472
Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas
City: $44,843
Suburb: $30,715
Cost Difference: $14,128
New York, N.Y.
City: $123,158
Suburb: $51,921
Cost Difference: $71,237
In some metropolitan areas, however, costs are less in cities:
Baltimore, Md.
City: $24,271
Suburb: $35,061
Cost Difference: $10,790
Philadelphia, Pa.
City: $25,155
Suburb: $39,014
Cost Difference: $13,859
“Deciding whether to live in the city or suburbs is a personal choice, but when you do the math, it’s easy to see why moving to the suburbs is about more than just a bigger yard—it can also save you a lot of money,” says Dr. Svenja Gudell, chief economist at Zillow. “More than a third of families exceed their initial budget when buying a home, according to the Zillow Group Consumer Trends Report, so before embarking on a move, consider the cost of living beyond just the home’s sticker price.”
For more information, please visit www.zillow.com.
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