hey everyone welcome back to the channel are you thinking of making a move to Tucson and you're curious as to what the cost of living is going to cost you or if it compares to where you're currently living well today we're going to do a deep dive in all of the cost of living in Tucson that's everything from housing Transportation groceries utilities everything it's going to give you a really good idea of what it would cost to live here now it's been a little over a year since I've done an update of these so it's definitely going to be interesting to see where things are at currently right now in 2024 and then besides that we're also going to take a look at three different places of where people are either moving from or also some similar places to kind of compare to Tucson so you can get an idea of what the affordability factor is or maybe the non-affordability factor but we're going to go ahead and take a deep dive so let's get right into it all right so today we're actually going to be using this really great site called pay scale and it's going to give you really a good idea of if you're looking to move to Tucson or kind of anywhere in general or just something kind of fun to play around with to see what it costs to live in a certain area it'll really base everything off of the national average and then you kind of go from there and you really see if this is going to be a something that you're able to afford or you know if you can live within your means or you know if it's less than what you're used to or if it costs more to live somewhere so really good site it's called pay scale and right now so I typed in cost of living I went through and I'm going to be comparing it and we'll go ahead later on down the video and compare it between three different cities as well currently right now in 2024 Tucson is 4% higher than the national average so it's based off of certain various factors such as career average salary just for today's video I'm basing it off of a really easy number and I'm just going to say the salary that you're working with is $100,000 a year so it's going to be basing it off of that throughout the entire video so as you can see right here again Tucson is 4% higher than the national average housing is up 6% utilities are down 2% and groceries are up 4% and I kind of think that's the norm across the United States right now just with inflation and how things have been going recently in the past few years with everything so unfortunately cost of everything is a little bit up we're going to take take a scroll down this line right here this black line is indicating the national average across the board so overall facing it Tucson is 4% higher than national average housing is 6% higher utilities is actually down 2% groceries is 4% higher and transportation is 7% higher so we're going to go down further just to give a better idea housing utilities and transportation now the median home price is from this site it's 475,000 this might be a little bit off because I just checked the other day and as of March the stats for the median home price in Tucson was actually 364,000 and so that might be a little bit more accurate it's basing it off of the Tucson Association of Realtors so it's really the local database so something to kind of keep in mind the site might not be the most most accurate but 3 64,000 was the median average home sale in Tucson so keep that in mind the median rent in tucon is 1,446 a month average Energy bill is $172 193 cents which you know that's really kind of depending Case by case mine typically in the summer can get up to that but it really depends if you're living in a smaller home it probably won't get up to that so it's all case-by case basis cell phone bill is averaging around $186 a month again caseby case basis but this seems pretty normal and standard across the board and then gas is $363 a gallon which this is definitely what it is right now currently in April 202024 except for the median home price that one I do kind of have a little issue with everything else seems to be around that price or so and then with the median home price and just with you know homes in general in Tucson starting at that 364 number the 364 median number um that's really kind of you know what things are selling for and once you kind of get up into that higher price point you know with nicer homes in the 500 600s you're able to find houses that you're not having to do as much work with and yes you can find some really great homes under that price but they move very quickly still so something to keep in mind now let's go ahead and go down to food and groceries and for my household I definitely do the grocery shopping so I'll be able to see if this is pretty accurate to what things are costing here in Tucson again it is 4% higher than the national average so a loaf of bread around $4 seems about right gallon of milk $252 carton of eggs and depending you know if you're buying organic or anything like that but standard carton of eggs is $2.34 I've seen it a little bit more expensive but you know pretty standard bunch of bananas $349 and then a hamburger uh $533 seems a little steep um I don't necessarily purchase hamburgers like fast food or anything so um that something probably you'd have to do a little bit more research but that one seems a little steep let's go ahead and go down to healthcare this can be tricky and this I think is a little bit you know national standards so this is something I think think might be a little bit off especially with the RX drugs that we're going to see but doctor's visit $126 sounds pretty close dentist $109 I definitely think that's pretty on par optometrist $119 I definitely seen it a little bit more expensive but that's pretty close RX drugs is $466 I think that's kind of you know again National wise we're kind of having a little bit of a crisis with that so depending on if you have insurance or if you use good RX can definitely be a lot less expensive but that's definitely very pricey and then um vet visits $61 depending on what you're getting this seems pretty accurate as well so again cost of living of Tucson it is a little bit higher than the national average I will say that you know just seeing with the housing and everything I do still think for a lot of major cities and a lot of cities on the west coast for that the median home price and the affordability of living is still really really great here and you know just again past few years prices for everything has gone up across the board everywhere nationally so for what I've been seeing you know throughout the United States I would say Tucson is still pretty great for what you're paying for housing groceries all of that definitely a good option now let's go ahead and compare some of the other cities but before we do that I did also want to mention that that I am a licensed real estate agent so if you are looking to move to Tucson or if you have questions I'd love to set up a one-on-one call with you my number is going to pop up on the video right here you can screenshot it and we can either set up a time to chat on Zoom or we can text call email whatever is easiest for you I'd love to help you with any questions you might have now let's go and compare some of the other cities to Tucson all right we're going to go ahead and compare three cities to Tucson now the first one we're going to compare is going to be Scottdale Arizona so that's in within the Phoenix metropolitan area about 2 hours away from Tucson but you know a lot of people do compare or try to figure out if they want to be in more of the Phoenix area compared to Tucson so just to give you an idea of the cost of living then we're going to look at San Diego I do have a lot of clients that move here from California and Southern California so really basing it off of San Diego just to give a good idea and then we're going to compare it to Portland Oregon and there are a lot of people who do compare Tucson and Portland I've never been to Portland but you know certain aspects I guess of Tucson and I think more of the um artsy inner city Tucson is very similar to Portland but you know we'll kind of compare that and go from there we're going to go ahead and switch over to rent Cafe now this site is going to give us a really awesome comparison of the cities and again this is a fun website to play around with whether you know you're looking to move or anything or if you're bored it's just kind of fun to see what things are costing elsewhere so let's go ahead and type in Scottdale and then compare to Tucson and again we are going to just work with that $100,000 annual salary if you were to maintain that $100,000 salary and you're moving either from Scottdale to Tucson it's 9% lower so to maintain the life you were living in Scottdale you would only need making around $91,000 compared to 100,000 and yes there's some differences there but that's kind of everywhere it's for you to pick and choose what you like what you don't like and we are looking at the average monthly rent so Scottdale compared to Tucson it is 38% lower to rent in Tucson so your average monthly rent in Scottsdale is going to cost you around $2,100 a month in Tucson it's around $1,300 a month or so and then scrolling down your average home price in Scottdale is going to be $746,000 while in Tucson again forget this number it is $364,000 so definitely looking at way a huge difference so cost of housing is definitely higher here looking at about a 38% lower to live in Tucson so utilities is going to be 10% higher in Scottdale so energy is around $22 Tucson is around $198 phone is actually from this website it shows Scottdale is lower and so it's 41% higher in Tucson which is pretty interesting I don't know necessarily what that would entail food now this is showing that it is somewhat comp terrible in certain areas a little bit lower a little bit higher so just something to kind of play around with 20% higher in Tucson for bananas which is kind of interesting and then healthc care it is 133% lower in Tucson so that's a pretty good difference there doctor's visits in Scottsdale is averaging around $146 while in Tucson it's 125 cost of ibuprofen is a dollar more in Tucson which is kind of funny uh transportation in Tucson it is saying that it's higher again this is a little bit more picky choosy I would say right now just driving back and forth between Tucson and Scottdale these don't seem too too accurate I think it is a price of gas at least is a little bit lower in Tucson traditionally goods and services and that stuff like your miscellaneous day-to-day haircuts in Scottdale seem to be a little bit lower it's a little bit higher in Tucson yoga is higher in Scott Dale movie ticket lower in Tucson so again this is take this with a grain of salt it might be the same it might be different and then income so income in Tucson is 51% lower so averaging around you know the median household income in Scottdale is around 97,000 in Tucson it's around 48,000 and again it is less expensive to live in Tucson so you kind of have to weigh those out there so let's go ahead and jump into our next city which we're going to analyze and we're going to take a look at Portland so again basing everything off $100,000 salary um in order to maintain that if you were living in Portland making $100,000 you mve to Tucson you would need $85,000 or so to maintain that same lifestyle so about 14% lower which is pretty good not saying you need to make lower but you know you can kind of live a little bit better here with that yearly salary and then with housing so buying and renting um average rent you're looking at 25% lower so what they're stating on this website is average rental is around $1,700 a month in Oregon in Portland and then in Tucson it's saying compared to around 1,300 or so in Tucson so about 25% lower and then if you were to purchase a home that is actually going to be 32% lower which is pretty huge so um home prices median home prices in Oregon and Portland is around $71,000 and then in tuon again this number is a little bit off um I again this one States 474 last month our median home price in Tucson was 364 so that's even better it's a lot lower more than half and then mortgage rate this is all based off of lender and your rates shopping so per state it's saying that Tucson or Arizona is more it's 5% higher than Portland then jumping to utilities it is saying that Tucson would be 6% higher so energy in Portland is $182 a month in Tucson it's $198 a month so a little bit higher and then phone is a 1% higher so $190 in Portland $193 in Tucson now let's look at food so this is showing that it's 5% lower in Tucson which is pretty good steak not a huge difference here about 3 cents uh the big one is going to be probably uh they're all pretty similar it's going to Coffee coffee is a little bit more expensive in Portland but just give you an idea of pricing somewhat similar for the most part healthc Care Tucson is 18% lower than Portland so your doctor's visit in Portland they're averaging out to $188 a visit while in Tucson it's $125 your dentist is costing around 115 in Portland while in Tucson it's 101 let's jump to Transportation transportation is about 14% lower and that is actually mainly coming from tires so tires are definitely more expensive in Portland while gas is pretty similar so you know if you're having to replace your tires every 3 years or so it's a little bit more expensive there goods and services so it's actually saying that Tucson is 2% higher so uh besides what's going to be costing more newspapers so if you're still purchasing newspapers they are 82% higher in Tucson I'm not sure how many people are still purchasing those but that's a big one um and then boy jeans is also 51% higher so Portland you can get some jeans for $23 while in Tucson it's averaging around 34 other than that uh your basic NE Necessities like haircuts uh it's lower in Tucson almost about $12 or so and then you know if you're taking yoga or workout classes it's about $5 to $6 cheaper in Tucson and then let's talk about income so meeting household income in Portland is around $78,000 a year and in Tucson it's 48 depending all on the career and everything but for the most part all in all it is a lot less expensive housing wise to live here so that all kind of falls into line of the affordability so something to weigh in mind if you are comparing the two places let's go ahead and look at San Diego next all right lastly let's compare San Diego to Tucson I have a lot of clients that have moved from Southern California and all over California out of California to Tucson and they really love it here they love the affordability here and that's just in general California's gotten pretty expensive it's kind of always been that way but especially the past few years prices have jumped up so again basing it off $100,000 salary so if you were making that in San Diego living off of that off of $100,000 it's going to be 27% lower to live here in Tucson so to kind of keep up with that St same lifestyle you would only need to make about $72,000 a year to live in Tucson and still M that lifestyle as you were in San Diego housing now this is kind of like a a no-brainer it's definitely way more expensive to live there um compared to it's 56% lower to live here in Tucson so average monthly rent in San Diego is around $2,900 a month well in Tucson it's around 1,300 so that's a huge difference massive massive difference majority of your pay is going to that monthly rent and then mortgage pricing so if you are looking at the median home price in Southern California in San Diego about a million do a little bit higher than a million doll and then again scratch this number it's actually actually $364 ,000 median home price here in Tucson so way less than it's probably around like a 60% difference of the cost of living way more affordable here in Tucson and then again mortgage rates these are all kind of caseby casee difference depending on so a little bit higher here in Tucson but depending on who you're using you can get lower rates for the most part average Energy bill in San Diego is around $223 while in Tucson it's around $198 and then phone bill it's supposedly a little bit cheaper in San Diego so about $180 a month while it's $193 here in Tucson and then food it is 9% lower here in Tucson which is kind of you know standard of what you would expect there seem at least when I visited there is a pretty like similar basis of food in Southern California and I think that's why people really relate to you know Southern Arizona and Southern Cali californ is they're pretty similar in Lifestyles and everything and the food and everything you're getting there I do think we have better Mexican food here but you know don't want to start any fights and then if we are scrolling to healthcare about 14% lower here in Tucson so your doctor's visits there are going to be $132 while here in Tucson it's $125 dentist is going to cost you about uh $20 more in San Diego Transportation looking at tires a little bit more expensive in San Diego and then gasoline um more expensive as well so about $468 a gallon while around $45 here in Tucson and then goods and services you know 4% isn't a huge huge difference um the most big thing is probably going to be your beauty salons again we have these newspapers that are really killing it here but again I don't know many people who are paying that much for a newspaper in general and then looking at income so you know median household income in San Diego is 89,000 while in Tucson it's around 48 so again the income is definitely lower here but the cost of living in general is also way lower compared to San Diego so definitely something to keep in mind well that wraps up the cost of living um I really really encourage you if you are looking to move here or just moving in general play around with these web sites so that's pay scale and rent Cafe play around with them because they might not be like 1,000% accurate but if you're looking to move and you're really used to your way of living and your income it'll really kind of help you um figure out where you can live where you're wanting to live if something is Affordable or if it's absolutely not affordable so definitely play around with it but you know this was more so of a gist of what things are costing right now in Tucson and then comparing it to other places for 2024 um I can always do another update halfway through or a little bit um along the year so that you guys get a better idea but this has generally been what the costs have been the past year is or so but I hope it was helpful again if you're looking to move I definitely recommend doing a lot of research and also reach out to me I'd love to set up a one-on-one call with you we can text call email I'd really love to help you know be your resource um and just get you a good idea of what you'd like to do in Tucson and if you have any questions again you can text call email me but I hope this was helpful and I look forward to seeing you in the next video [Music]
