{"id":35819,"date":"2025-07-03T17:08:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-03T17:08:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/35819\/"},"modified":"2025-07-03T17:08:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-03T17:08:11","slug":"chicago-ranked-among-the-most-overpriced-u-s-cities-in-new-study","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/35819\/","title":{"rendered":"Chicago ranked among the most overpriced U.S. cities in new study"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Chicagoans can\u2019t catch a break when it comes to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeout.com\/chicago\/news\/chicago-is-officially-one-of-the-most-expensive-cities-in-the-world-080524\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the cost of living<\/a>\u2014at least,\u00a0according to a new study from home-goods pros Highland Cabinetry, which ranks the most overpriced cities in the U.S.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Analyzing a diverse range of metrics that consider not only the cost of living but also the quality of life in the Windy City\u2014including the exorbitant expense of housing, earned income, relative safety, traffic and so on\u2014the study sourced its data from the likes of the\u00a0U.S. Bureau of Labor and Zillow real estate stats.<\/p>\n<p><strong>RECOMMENDED:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeout.com\/chicago\/news\/these-were-the-10-priciest-zip-codes-in-chicago-in-2024-042325\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">These are the 10 priciest zip codes in Chicago\u2014did yours make the list?<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>While Newark, New Jersey earned the number one spot for being the most overpriced city in the U.S., earning a\u00a0perfect score of 100 (not an A+ in this case), followed by New York City with a score of 98.17, Chicago sailed in at No. 7 with an overall score of 89.\u00a0Given that Chicago is a major city with 2.75 million people, the third largest in the U.S., those expensive results aren\u2019t entirely surprising.<\/p>\n<p>According to the study, rent plus cost of living will set you back $3,704 in the Windy City. With a median household income of $74,474, the dollar doesn\u2019t stretch too far in Chicagoland. The safety index comes in at 33.9, quite a low score; pollution rates at 50.69; and the traffic index comes in at 189.12\u2014all of this is to say that Chicago can be a tough place to thrive, especially if you\u2019re not a high-income earner.\u00a0(The 5.3-percent unemployment rate, the worst on the list, doesn\u2019t help matters).<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCost of living alone doesn\u2019t define the value of a city,\u201d a spokesperson for Highland Cabinetry told <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/markets\/these-are-most-overpriced-cities-united-states\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">ZeroHedge<\/a>. \u201cWhat our data shows is that several high-cost urban areas come with serious trade-offs, whether it\u2019s long commutes, safety issues, or environmental stress. For many residents, the price tag isn\u2019t the only consideration\u2014it\u2019s what that money gets you. And in many cases, the return on investment just isn\u2019t there.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chicagoans can\u2019t catch a break when it comes to the cost of living\u2014at least,\u00a0according to a new study&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":35820,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5124],"tags":[10336,960,5386,1818,10337,1072],"class_list":{"0":"post-35819","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago","8":"tag-categories-things-to-do","9":"tag-chicago","10":"tag-il","11":"tag-illinois","12":"tag-news-city-life","13":"tag-things-to-do"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114790407206756927","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35819","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35819"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35819\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}