15 States With the Highest Cost of Living

In Jackson Mississippi or Dayton, Ohio, $100,000 would buy you a home that's almost 2,500 square feet. In San Francisco, California, you'd need around $650,000 to buy the lowest priced home in the city, which spans a total of 600-square feet and needs to be completely redone. 

Housing prices aren't the only big difference from one city or state to another. Food, transportation, energy, and other basic costs also vary greatly. Because there's such a big disparity in the prices of necessities, $1 in one locale will buy you far less than $1 in another. That's why the Bureau of Economic Analysis publishes data on “regional price parity,” which is a measure of how much a certain amount of money can purchase in different places.

A high price parity number means goods and services cost more for residents, and a price parity of above 100 means locals pay more for things than the national average. There are currently 15 states with price parity scores topping 100, and residents of all of them pay more than their neighbors for basic costs of living. 

Read on to find out which states exceed national average living expenses, starting with the one with the smallest price disparity and finishing with the locale where costs exceed national averages by the largest amount.

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