7 Most Expensive States to Live in the U.S.

As most of us already know, an equal salary can stretch much further in one place than in another. If you earn at least $75,000 per year, you earn a comfortable salary. At this income level, you are said to have reached the point where you really don’t need any more money to thrive. In each state, however, this $75,000 has to be adjusted to account for costs of living differences.

A few states, however, like Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Nevada, Florida, and Wisconsin are right around the benchmark. That is, even when adjusting for cost of living, these states will produce a monetary amount that is relatively similar to the nationwide reference point.

Recently, we shared the most inexpensive states to live in the U.S. Now, let’s check out the most expensive states. Do you live in an expensive state? How much does it cost to live, eat, and go out on the town in these higher priced locations? We’re also going to take it one step further and answer the question: how much of an annual salary do you need in each of these states to live comfortably at that $75K level?

*These states are ranked in order based on their overall cost of living. All cost of living index data comes from the Missouri Economic Research and Information Center (MERIC) first-quarter report, and pricing data comes from Zillow, Numbeo.com, and other resources.

I've lived in red states and I've lived in blue states. Really makes little difference to me. Don't get me wrong, it's nice to have a conservative legislature in a given state and I'll happily do my part to vote them in, but I don't rely on government and I don't allow it to impact my standard of living.

As far as the more expensive places, it's driven by real estate and economic opportunity. The reason the prices are so high in certain states is because they are very desirable places to live. I recently paid about $700,000 for a home in Connecticut and yes, the same house would have cost probably $300,000 or less in places like Arkansas or Mississippi. But I would have much difficulty making the income there that I make here. And even if I did, well, I'd still be in Arkansas or Mississippi.

If that sounds elitist, I'm sorry about that. But I've spent considerable time in the South and the overall quality of life is just not there for me. Though the people there are much nicer, I'll grant you that.

Reason these states tend to vote liberal is because of the big cities. Many people on welfare, a large Jewish population who will vote liberal no matter what, and a lot of unions and government workers. Once you get to the outer suburbs and beyond, we are much more conservative but we just don't have the numbers to overcome the big cities. Here in Connecticut, most of the towns in my county (Fairfield) votes conservative but we are outnumbered by the city folk in Danbury, Stamford and Bridgeport.

As for those in Texas who love to crow about your conservative government, you better keep an eye on what's coming over the border and also the demographic shifts that are quickly taking place in large cities like Houston and Dallas.

Anyway, my point here is that it will be expensive to live in places like NY, CT, CA and NJ no matter what government is in charge. These are the most desirable places in the country to live and work and you are going to have to pay for the privilege to live here (unless you don't mind living in a run-down urban ghetto).

I think it is more a matter of minority areas like Bridgeport, Hartford, and Waterbury. If it were not for the voters in those three cities, the state would be quite red.

I remember Stamford in the 60s, they had huge slums of low-income housing, mostly black. It was all torn down in the 70s, and they turned Stamford into an upper-crust down with no poor people allowed. That is a neat trick if you can manage to do it.

Yes, Stamford is a very upscale town. I wasn't around to see how it was when it was a low-income town. But they still vote Dem by a large margin.

Overall, I'm pleasantly surprised with how conservative Connecticut is overall. Many of my new neighbors are decidedly conservative and yard signs for Republicans outnumber those for Dems. Now I'm coming from Massachusetts which might skew my perspective a bit but it's a breath of fresh air nevertheless.

MD not on the list? BS! Although they are blue states. They provide a much higher income. I would not make 10 percent of what I make in Maryland down in Mississippi for example. Sure you can say it is more expensive in Maryland, but not enough to justify the extremely low incomes in MS. The red states need to pay better. For some reason they have not done this. And they need to stop taking money from the federal government. I hate when states do this and red states do this most which I find very sad.

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