You'll Never Guess How Much It Costs To Live In Miami

MIAMI, FL — For those of us who live in the Miami area, we're accustomed to paying a little more for the privilege of calling the Magic City home. After all, we live in a place that many people save up all year to visit, not to mention the countless special events and things to do. Unfortunately, a new study confirms everything we suspected about the high cost of living.

The Miami-Dade metropolitan area ranks as one of the most expensive places to live in the Sunshine state, according to the Economic Policy Institute. It's really no surprise that Miami is more pricey than Tampa but would you have guessed that it costs more to live in West Palm Beach and Boca Raton than Miami?

The institute recently released its 2018 family budget calculator that estimates how costly it is to live in each of America's 3,142 counties and 611 metro areas.

Economic Policy Institute estimates that a family of two adults and two children in Miami-Dade would need to earn a combined $84,972 per year — or $7,081 a month — to live comfortably.

Here's how that money gets spent:

• Housing: $$1,351 per month
• Food: $853 per month
• Child Care: $1,123 per month
• Transportation: $1,052 per month
• Health Care: $1,027 per month
• Other Necessities: $889 per month
• Taxes: $786 per month

Our costs are only slightly more expensive than if we lived in Naples but much higher than if we lived in Tampa.

To live in the Naples area, the same family would need to earn a combined $83,990 per year, or $6,999 every month, to "attain a modest yet adequate standard of living," the organization said. In the West Palm/Boca Raton area, the cost would be $85,619 per year.

But in Tampa, the same family would only need to earn a combined $ 77,064 per year — or $ 6,422 a month — to live comfortably.

That's even less than in Orlando, where the family would need to earn $78,440 per year. That's roughly equivalent to the $78,489 required to live in the state capital of Tallahassee.

It's much cheaper to live in Jacksonville, where the cost drops down to $74,457 or better yet in Pensacola, where it only costs $72,155 to raise the same family.

The family budget calculator accounts for geographic differences in cost of living, but does not include many expenses associated with a middle-class lifestyle, including student loan payments or saving for college or retirement.

"Our Family Budget Calculator goes beyond traditional measures like the poverty line to paint a detailed picture of what families need to get by," EPI Senior Economist Elise Gould stated. "The latest update provides even greater detail on how costs vary throughout the country. It is above all else a tool for policymakers to advocate for ways to raise wages and make their communities more affordable."

San Francisco ranked as the most expensive metro area in the nation, where that same family would need a whopping $148,439. Of course they'd only need to earn $58,906 to live comfortably in Brownsville, Texas, which ranked as least expensive metropolitan area in the country.

The institute noted that many low-wage workers don't make enough money to adequately provide for their family's basic needs. Even after adjusting for higher state and city minimum wages, the group said, there is "nowhere in the country" where a minimum-wage worker would earn enough.

"It's clear from our analysis that, even in less-expensive areas, many families will struggle to meet their basic needs," said research assistant Zane Mokhiber. "The good news is we have many different ways to remedy this, from a higher minimum wage to ambitious child care reform. Policymakers should draw on a range of tools to help people meet the needs laid out in the Family Budget Calculator."

Click here to try out the calculator for yourself. You can change the number of adults and children to see exactly what your household needs to earn to live comfortably in cities and counties throughout the country.

Patch editors Dan Hampton and Don Johnson contributed to this report

Photo by Paul Scicchitano