Cost of living in San Francisco, CA
The San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA metro area (4,648,486 people) ranks #1 of 149 for prices among the U.S. metro areas we cover. Here's what it costs to live there.
Hover over or tap a dot to see its value.
See all 149 cities
Price level, from cheaper to pricier.
- The Villages, FL 85.4
- McAllen, TX 85.9
- Springfield, MO 88.6
- Wichita, KS 88.9
- Jackson, MS 89.0
- Tulsa, OK 89.2
- Columbus, GA 89.3
- Little Rock, AR 89.4
- El Paso, TX 89.9
- Oklahoma City, OK 90.4
- Sioux Falls, SD 90.6
- Baton Rouge, LA 90.8
- Clarksville, TN 90.9
- Fargo, ND 90.9
- Killeen, TX 91.1
- Spartanburg, SC 91.1
- Fayetteville, AR 91.4
- Chattanooga, TN 91.5
- Toledo, OH 91.5
- Birmingham, AL 91.6
- Des Moines, IA 91.7
- Augusta, GA 91.9
- Omaha, NE 91.9
- Fayetteville, NC 92.0
- Winston-Salem, NC 92.0
- Jacksonville, NC 92.1
- Memphis, TN 92.2
- Kansas City, MO 92.5
- Fort Wayne, IN 92.6
- Knoxville, TN 92.6
- New Orleans, LA 92.6
- Dayton, OH 92.7
- Greensboro, NC 92.9
- Lexington, KY 92.9
- Huntsville, AL 93.1
- Louisville, KY 93.1
- Greenville, SC 93.3
- Akron, OH 93.4
- Billings, MT 93.5
- Myrtle Beach, SC 93.6
- Columbia, SC 93.7
- Cleveland, OH 93.9
- Daphne, AL 94.7
- Pittsburgh, PA 94.7
- San Antonio, TX 94.7
- St. Louis, MO 95.1
- Ocala, FL 95.2
- Savannah, GA 95.2
- Cincinnati, OH 95.4
- Albuquerque, NM 95.5
- Columbus, OH 95.5
- Grand Rapids, MI 95.5
- Indianapolis, IN 95.7
- Syracuse, NY 95.7
- Buffalo, NY 95.8
- Nashville, TN 96.3
- Wilmington, NC 96.4
- Asheville, NC 96.5
- Cheyenne, WY 96.5
- Gainesville, FL 96.7
- Milwaukee, WI 96.9
- Tucson, AZ 96.9
- Crestview, FL 97.0
- Rochester, NY 97.0
- Lakeland, FL 97.1
- Charlotte, NC 97.3
- Madison, WI 97.3
- Panama City, FL 97.3
- Durham, NC 97.6
- Pensacola, FL 97.7
- Richmond, VA 97.9
- Virginia Beach, VA 97.9
- Hilton Head Island, SC 98.0
- Austin, TX 98.1
- Provo, UT 98.2
- Raleigh, NC 98.2
- Prescott, AZ 98.3
- Boise, ID 98.4
- Houston, TX 98.6
- Harrisburg, PA 98.7
- Daytona Beach, FL 99.4
- Jacksonville, FL 99.5
- Albany, NY 99.6
- Allentown, PA 100.0
- Palm Bay, FL 100.0
- Atlanta, GA 100.1
- Greeley, CO 100.2
- Las Vegas, NV 100.2
- Port St. Lucie, FL 100.2
- Detroit, MI 100.3
- Ogden, UT 100.3
- Spokane, WA 100.3
- Norwich, CT 100.4
- Punta Gorda, FL 100.5
- Colorado Springs, CO 100.7
- Ann Arbor, MI 100.9
- Bakersfield, CA 100.9
- Burlington, VT 100.9
- Salt Lake City, UT 100.9
- Tampa, FL 100.9
- Charleston, SC 101.0
- Reno, NV 101.0
- Fort Collins, CO 101.1
- Orlando, FL 101.4
- Eugene, OR 101.6
- Providence, RI 101.8
- Portland, ME 101.9
- Fresno, CA 102.2
- Cape Coral, FL 102.3
- Sarasota, FL 102.4
- Worcester, MA 102.5
- Philadelphia, PA 102.6
- Hartford, CT 102.7
- Dallas, TX 103.1
- Naples, FL 103.2
- Trenton, NJ 103.2
- Phoenix, AZ 103.3
- Bend, OR 103.6
- Chicago, IL 103.6
- Olympia, WA 103.7
- Baltimore, MD 104.5
- New Haven, CT 104.6
- Minneapolis, MN 104.8
- Stockton, CA 105.1
- Boulder, CO 105.2
- Anchorage, AK 105.4
- Portland, OR 105.4
- Bremerton, WA 105.6
- Manchester, NH 105.7
- Denver, CO 105.8
- Riverside, CA 106.4
- Sacramento, CA 106.7
- Bridgeport, CT 106.9
- Santa Rosa, CA 107.8
- Boston, MA 108.3
- Vallejo, CA 108.5
- Santa Barbara, CA 108.8
- Washington, D.C. 108.9
- Salinas, CA 109.0
- Poughkeepsie, NY 109.4
- San Jose, CA 110.4
- Oxnard, CA 110.5
- Honolulu, HI 111.0
- Seattle, WA 111.1
- San Diego, CA 111.9
- New York, NY 112.6
- Los Angeles, CA 113.6
- Miami, FL 114.2
- San Francisco, CA 115.6
Compare San Francisco with your city
See what you'd need to earn in San Francisco to keep your lifestyle, after taxes and local prices. The calculator starts from San Jose, CA, which sends the most households here of the metros we cover (IRS, 2022–2023), using its median household income as an illustrative single-earner salary. Household income can include several earners and other income; it is not a typical individual wage. Pick your own city, salary and filing status.
Equal salary in San Francisco: $174,000
Compare any two of 149 U.S. metro areas. All cities
To keep the same lifestyle, you need about $174,000 in San Francisco, CA to match $165,000 in San Jose, CA ($9,000 more), after 2026 taxes and local prices.
Single filer, W-2 salary. Both are in California, so state income tax is the same; neither city levies a resident income tax.
Prices and housing cover the metro area; taxes use California, its principal state. A metro can span several states; living in its other state can change the tax result.
What things cost in San Francisco
The vertical line marks the U.S. average (100). BEA Regional Price Parities 2024 for the metropolitan area.
Taxes in San Francisco
In this fixed example, one single filer earning a $135,000 W-2 salary keeps $93,618 after 2026 federal tax ($21,134), Social Security and Medicare ($10,328) and California income tax ($8,166), plus $1,755 in state payroll programs. The salary is rounded from median household income, not an observed individual wage. This example stays fixed when you change the calculator.
Housing
| Measure | San Francisco area |
|---|---|
| Median rent | $2,435/mo |
| Median home value | $1,132,900 |
| Median property tax | $8,777/yr |
| Monthly cost to own the median home (20% down) | $7,031 |
| Median household income | $135,590 |
Climate and jobs in San Francisco
In the San Francisco area the average January low is 47°F and the average July high 66°F, and the area has about 3 days a year at 90°F or hotter. Unemployment averaged 4.4% in 2025, above the U.S. rate (4.3%), and the median wage across all jobs was $74,260 a year, 46% above the U.S. median.
| Climate | 1991–2020 average |
|---|---|
| January low | 47°F |
| July high | 66°F |
| Days 90°F or hotter | 3 a year |
| Precipitation | 23 in a year |
| Snowfall | 0 in a year |
| Jobs and pay | Metro area | U.S. |
|---|---|---|
| Unemployment rate, 2025 average | 4.4% | 4.3% |
| Median wage, all jobs (May 2025) | $74,260 | $50,980 |
| Wage and salary jobs (May 2025) | 2.4 million | 155.5 million |
Climate: NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020 averages at the San Francisco Downtown station (USW00023272), with snowfall from San Francisco Oceanside (USC00047767) because the main station doesn't record it. Weather varies across a metro area, especially with elevation and distance from the coast. Jobs: unemployment from BLS Local Area Unemployment Statistics; wages and job counts from BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, which count wage and salary jobs, not the self-employed; wages are before taxes. The 2025 average covers 11 months: October 2025 data were not collected during the federal government shutdown.
Retiring in San Francisco
Our modeled retiree budget is about $4,051 a month here with a home owned outright, or $5,068 renting. It uses spending benchmarks for households with a reference person age 65 or older (BLS 2024), adjusted for local prices. These are household-based estimates, not observed spending by a single retiree in San Francisco. See where your budget goes furthest.
Where people move to and from San Francisco
- San Francisco to San Jose
- San Francisco to Los Angeles
- San Francisco to Sacramento
- San Francisco to New York
- San Francisco to Stockton
- San Francisco to Vallejo
- San Francisco to San Diego
- San Francisco to Santa Rosa
- San Jose to San Francisco
- Los Angeles to San Francisco
- Sacramento to San Francisco
- New York to San Francisco
- Stockton to San Francisco
- Vallejo to San Francisco
- San Diego to San Francisco
- Seattle to San Francisco
IRS county-to-county migration data, 2022–2023, aggregated to the 149 metro areas we cover.
Natural hazard risk
RelocateMath's population-weighted mean of FEMA county risk scores for the San Francisco area is 99.4 of 100 (very high county-score mean), with modeled expected losses of about $993 per resident per year. A mean of county percentiles is not an official FEMA metro rating or a national metro percentile. It describes the counties in the metro; your property's risk can differ. Disaster risk by county in California.
The vertical line marks county-score scale midpoint (50).
Frequently asked questions
What salary do you need to live in San Francisco?
In a fixed single-filer W-2 example living inside the principal city, about $97,000 in San Francisco matches the buying power of $75,000 in an average-priced area with no state income tax. The example uses 2026 federal taxes, California state taxes and modeled resident local taxes where applicable. It stays fixed when calculator inputs change. Renting the median home at 30% of income takes $97,400, and buying the median home with 20% down takes about $301,317.
Is San Francisco expensive?
The San Francisco metro area's price level is 115.6 (U.S. = 100), #1 of the 149 metro areas we cover, from most to least expensive. Its housing rents price index is 194.7, 95% above the U.S. average.
Are people moving to San Francisco?
Counting moves to and from the other 148 metro areas we cover, San Francisco had a net loss of about 11,450 households in 2022–2023 (IRS county migration data).
What is the weather like in San Francisco?
In NOAA's 1991–2020 climate normals for the San Francisco area (San Francisco Downtown weather station), the average January low is 47°F and the average July high 66°F. The area has about 3 days a year at 90°F or hotter and gets 23 inches of precipitation a year and almost no snow.
What are jobs and pay like in San Francisco?
The San Francisco metro area's unemployment rate averaged 4.4% in 2025, above the U.S. rate (4.3%). The median wage across all jobs was $74,260 a year in May 2025, 46% above the U.S. median of $50,980 (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
What natural disasters affect San Francisco?
RelocateMath's population-weighted mean of FEMA county risk scores is 99.4 out of 100 (very high county-score mean). This is not an official FEMA metro rating or a national metro percentile. The highest county-score means by hazard are earthquake, landslide, riverine flooding.
Compare San Francisco with other cities
Moving from San Francisco to…
Cities with similar prices
- Miami, FL 114.2
- Los Angeles, CA 113.6
- New York, NY 112.6
- San Diego, CA 111.9
- Seattle, WA 111.1
- Honolulu, HI 111.0
- Moving from California
State-agency links identify the responsible tax office; they do not verify every modeled rule. Use forms and guidance for the year you are filing.