If keeping up with costs around Atlanta seems tougher than it used to, you’re not necessarily a miser—and you’re definitely not hallucinating.
A new cost-of-living analysis of 380 metro areas in every U.S. state has found the Atlanta region ranks 10th among large metros when it comes to highest salaries needed for “living comfortably.”
The research released this week by Upgraded Points, a travel rewards website that studies city trends, weighed the latest data from the Economic Policy Institute and U.S. Census Bureau. The goal was to calculate a comfortable living wage in the largest U.S. metros for a variety of residents, ranging from single people to two-adult households with up to three children.
The findings reflect rising costs associated with everything from rent to childcare and the price of eggs in metro Atlanta, which has been trading spots with greater Miami in recent years as the Southeast’s largest metro area.
What does “living comfortably” mean?
This breakdown of costs for single adults puts Georgia as an outlier in the Southeast. via Upgraded Points; Economic Policy Institute data
For the study, researchers applied what’s known as the 50/30/20 budget rule. That allocates 50 percent of an individual’s income to necessities, 30 percent to discretionary spending, and 20 percent to savings or debt payments, according to Upgraded Points.
For the Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell metropolitan statistical area, the analysis found that a single adult now needs to earn nearly $125,000 to live comfortably.
The median personal income in the metro, meanwhile, is just shy of $52,000 right now, per the study. (Is it a coincidence that roughly half of child-free young adults are contemplating ditching Atlanta—the fifth-highest share in the country—according to a separate analysis cited by Axios Atlanta this week?)
In metro Atlanta, having kids means things get considerably more expensive, of course.
Aerial photo this month of Midtown's skyline, which has transformed with residential and office development over the past decade, with Buckhead in the distance at left. Urbanize Atlanta
Analysis of typical costs for a family of four. via Upgraded Points; Economic Policy Institute data
Living comfortably for two-parent metro households with a single child requires $203,699 combined salaries—and that jumps by about $67,000 per year with three kids.
The Atlanta area’s median household income stands at less than $114,000 right now.
A slightly less disconcerting statistic: Metro Atlanta ranks 21st on the list of all metros when relatively pricey smaller ones such as Napa, Calif., Kahului-Wailuku, Hawaii, and Burlington, Vermont are factored in.
Below is a more in-depth breakdown of how metro Atlanta stacks up among its big-city counterparts:
How metro Atlanta stacks up (No. 10) among all large U.S. metros right now, per the analysis. via Upgraded Points; Economic Policy Institute data
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• Atlanta ranks No. 1 in two totally unrelated U.S. city lists. Woo! (Urbanize Atlanta)
