The Kalamazoo-Portage Metro ranked as the lowest cost of living in the country in the first quarter of 2022, according to the Cost of Living Index (COLI). The after-tax cost for a professional/managerial standard of living in Kalamazoo was more than 25 percent below the national average. On the same list, Grand Rapids Metro and Detroit Metro ranked 108th and 195th respectively.

COLI measures regional differences in the cost of consumer goods and services, excluding taxes and non-consumer expenditures, for professional and managerial households in the top income quintile. It is based on more than 90,000 prices covering 60 different items for which prices are collected quarterly by chambers of commerce, economic development organizations, and university applied economic centers in each participating urban area.

Published by The Council for Community and Economic Research, COLI is based on a weighted average of housing, grocery items, utilities, transportation, health care, and miscellaneous goods and services, where housing is weighted the highest.

The Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U), a measure of the general costs of goods and an indicator of inflation in the United States, increased 8.6% annually in May 2022, which was the largest 12-month increase since December of 1981. While the Kalamazoo-Portage metropolitan area has not been immune to the price spikes seen across the country, the area remains one of the most affordable metropolitan areas to live in the country.

Top 10 Least and Most Expensive Urban Areas | 2022 Q1

(National Average for 262 Urban Areas = 100.0)

1 – Kalamazoo, MI – 74.1
2 – Harlingen, TX – 76.5
3 – Muskogee, OK – 77.3
4 – Jackson, MS – 80.5
5 – Tupelo, MS – 80.8
6 – Decatur, IL – 81.0
7 – Topeka, KS – 81.7
8 – Richmond, IN – 81.9
9 – Statesboro-Bulloch County, GA – 82.0
10 – Salina, KS – 82.4

262 – Manhattan, New York, NY – 237.8
261 – Honolulu, HI – 192.7
260 – San Francisco, CA – 184.2
259 – Brooklyn, New York, NY – 174.9
258 – Washington DC – 158.8
257 – Orange County, CA – 154.8
256 – Los Angeles-Long Beach, CA – 151.9
255 – Boston, MA – 150.8
254 – Seattle, WA – 150.7
253 – Oakland, CA – 149.0

For additional information on the Cost of Living Index or other COLI-related products such as the COLI Web Calculator and the COLI Historical Index, visit www.coli.org.