Miami Amongst Top 50 Most Expensive Cities On The Planet

Human resources consulting giant Mercer released their annual cost of living survey, detailing the most expensive places to live on our growing-ever-more-crowded planet.  We can take great pride in the list this year: Miami has finally made the Top 50 list, coming in at #39, up from #57 last year.  New York is the most expensive city in the US, surprise surprise, and the 10th most expensive worldwide.

The rankings are based on prices of housing, transportation, food, household goods, clothing, and entertainment. 

Of the other US cities on the list, Miami was barely edged out by Chicago (#38--dang it!)  and got spanked by Los Angeles (#29) and San Francisco (#34).  All four US cities were ranked lower on the list last year.  It's becoming more expensive to be an American, apparently.

Worldwide, last year's overall winner, Tokyo, is down to #3 (is the yen still declining?), having been replaced by Moscow as the new #1.  Moscow's "victory" is partially due to escalated home prices, which have risen 50% in the past year.  Ouch.  The irony is not lost on the fact that the most expensive city in the world is the former seat of Communism.  Other Communist cities on the list: China's Beijing (#14), Shanghai (#20) and Shenzen (#44), and Vietnam's Hanoi (32) and Ho Chi Mihn City (#37).  What is up with the high cost of Communism these days? 

Then there are several African cities on the list--but one can only imagine what makes Cameroon's Douala (#27) or Nigeria's Lagos (#31) so expensive.  Neither Douala nor Lagos sound very nice.

For the full list, click here and download "Top 50 rankings for cost of living."

ALSO: Soaring real-estate prices and shrinking grants have crippled the efforts of "faith-based" housing projects to increase home ownership among low-income South Florida residents. Have you donated to Habitat For Humanity lately? Read the article here. [Miami Herald]

Comments

[arizona insurance]

My first reaction was "that's not too bad". But then I saw it was "on the planet". Wow. I could see New York, Paris, Madrid and I guess Miami could make it in there somewhere.