Twin Cities worst of major Midwest cities for buying power: Survey

A new survey is looking at how far your dollar goes in major metropolitan areas, including the Twin Cities.

Survey background

The backstory:

The survey by Bankrate took a look at an average worker's salary and how it was impacted by the city's cost of living.

The idea behind the survey was to give workers looking to relocate a comparison of buying power for different metros instead of just looking at the raw salary for a job.

For instance, someone choosing between a $100,000 job in San Francisco or a $79,000 job in San Antonio might think that's an easy choice, strictly considering pay. However, per the survey: "Someone making $100,000 in San Francisco has the same buying power as someone else making roughly $79,000 in San Antonio or $85,000 in Atlanta."

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Bankrate found workers in San Francisco were the hardest impacted by cost of living adjustment. San Francisco is often included among the most expensive cities in the United States to live in. On the other side, your dollar went further in San Antonio, St. Louis, Charlotte, and Detroit – the only cities where residents gained buying power after adjusting for the cost of living.

How the Twin Cities fared

Local perspective:

Of the 25 metros included in the ranking, the Twin Cities metro finished firmly in the middle at 12th.

In the Twin Cities metro, the annual mean wage for workers is $70,290. When adjusting for the cost of living, the wage fell to $67,263 – a -4.3% drop in buying power against.

The Twin Cities finished worse than the three other Midwest metros included in the survey, including Chicago (-2.5% decrease in buying power), Detroit (buying power increased 2%), and St. Louis (buying power increased 3.8%).

Full rankings

Big picture view:

Here are the full rankings of the study:

  1. San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA Metro Area: Buying power -15.4%
  2. Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA Metro Area: Buying power -13.4%
  3. Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA Metro Area: Buying power -11.5%
  4. New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ Metro Area: Buying power -11.1%
  5. Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL Metro Area: Buying power -10.6%
  6. Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH Metro Area: Buying power -10.4%
  7. San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA Metro Area: Buying power -10.3%
  8. Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV Metro Area: Buying power -7.9%
  9. Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA Metro Area: Buying power -7.3%
  10. Denver-Aurora-Centennial, CO Metro Area: Buying power -5.2%
  11. Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler, AZ Metro Area: Buying power -5.2%
  12. Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI Metro Area: Buying power -4.3%
  13. Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA Metro Area: Buying power -3.5%
  14. Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD Metro Area: Buying power -3.4%
  15. Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL Metro Area: Buying power -3.3%
  16. Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX Metro Area: Buying power -3.2%
  17. Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD Metro Area: Buying power -2.6%
  18. Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN Metro Area: Buying power -2.5%
  19. Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, FL Metro Area: Buying power -1.1%
  20. Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA Metro Area: Buying power -0.9%
  21. Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX Metro Area: Buying power -0.2%
  22. Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, MI Metro Area: Buying power +2.0%
  23. Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC Metro: Buying power +3.1%
  24. St. Louis, MO-IL Metro Area: Buying power +3.8%
  25. San Antonio-New Braunfels, TX Metro Area: Buying power +6.7%
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