The Top 10 Most Expensive North American Cities Are a Tough Sell for Buyers (Pun Intended!)

It’s no secret that living in cities like New York City and Los Angeles aren’t the best choices for your bank account. However, a new study of the most expensive North American cities just dropped with some additional contenders for the least budget-friendly cities on the continent — and almost all of them are, perhaps unsurprisingly, coastal.

Mercer released its latest annual Cost of Living Data for 2024, which ranked 226 cities across five continents based on an average cost analysis of over 200 different items. These categories included the prices of clothing, food (like eggs, olive oil, and espresso), household goods, housing, and entertainment in each city, giving a comprehensive idea of how much it would actually cost to live in each place. 

Mercer used New York City and the U.S. dollar as a base to measure other cities and currencies against to ensure consistency. New York City, which ranked 7th globally, took the top spot as the most expensive city in North America. Mercer found that like many places around the world, the Big Apple experienced a big jump in inflation when it came to certain groceries (for example, the cost of olive oil went up by 36.8% over a one-year period from May 2023 to May 2024), as well as a 7% increase in the cost of housing rental prices for that same time frame. 

The second most expensive city in North America was Nassau, Bahamas. The tropical city didn’t experience a change in the cost of rental housing this year, but the city likely still struggles with other factors that many high-ranking cities struggle with, including costly housing markets, expensive transportation, and more pricey goods and services. Los Angeles came in right behind Nassau as the third most expensive North American city. 

While New York City, Nassau, and Los Angeles didn’t see much difference in rankings from the past year, Mercer noted that Mexico City — which didn’t crack the top 10, or even the top 20 — still experienced a major jump in costliness, going up 46 places over the last year to number 33. 

Mexico’s capital has become a hotspot for expats looking for more affordable housing, and it’s possible that it experienced this jump as housing prices have gone up due to the “mismatch of supply and demand,” the report says, when it comes to available housing compared to the people who are searching for somewhere to live.

Here are the top 10 most expensive North American Cities for 2024.

1. New York City, New York
2. Nassau, Bahamas
3. Los Angeles, California
4. Honolulu, Hawaii
5. San Francisco, California
6. Miami, Florida
7. Boston, Massachusetts
8. Chicago, Illinois
9. Washington, D.C.
10.  Atlanta, Georgia

You can read the full Mercer report here.