Cost of Living
per year
per month
How Albany's prices compare to the US city average across major spending categories.
How far does your salary go in Albany?
Your $100,000 in Albany has the same purchasing power as $97,437 in the average US city. You'd need $2,563 more here to maintain that standard of living.
Demographics and workforce data from the US Census ACS 5-Year.
bachelor's or higher
Climate, safety, and walkability indicators.
See a side-by-side breakdown of cost of living, housing, and salaries.
Popular comparisons
Sorted by affordability — most affordable first.
Within 10 points of Albany's cost index of 103, sorted by closest match.
Albany has a handful of real selling points, and they're not the kind of thing you find in a brochure. Bike infrastructure that actually exists and air quality you don't have to think about are the headliners, plus 2 more things worth knowing. The rest is below.
Bike Score of 62/100 in Albany. That puts it in the small group of US cities where you can do groceries, commute, and run errands on a bike without it being a feat of urban survival.
Average AQI in Albany comes in around 33, well into the "good" band. Clean air isn't a thing you appreciate until you've lived somewhere it wasn't — and this is the side of that line you want to be on.
Average commute time in Albany runs around 19 minutes one-way — short enough that it doesn't restructure your day. Compared to the 45-plus-minute commutes that are normal in major metros, the difference adds up to a real lifestyle gap.
Albany has a college-educated share of about 43% among adults 25+, which is higher than the national norm. It shows up in the local job mix, in the school district's reputation, and in the kind of conversations you have at the coffee shop.
Reasons are pulled from Albany's actual data — Census ACS, BLS, BEA, NOAA, EPA AQS, FBI, and Walk Score. We don't list positives that aren't supported by the numbers, which is why different cities show different sections.
Yes — and a lot of it. With winter averages near 20°F, Albany sees real accumulation most years. Salt for the steps, tires that handle ice, and a sense of humor about February are the usual costs of admission.
Properly cold. Albany's winter sits around 20°F on average — and that's the average, meaning plenty of nights drop well below zero. People here own gear.
Warm without being brutal. Summer in Albany sits about 77°F on average. Afternoons can push into the high 80s, but mornings and evenings are usually genuinely pleasant.
Albany falls in roughly USDA Zone 7. The zone classification is based on average annual minimum temperatures, so it's the right lookup for whether perennials and trees will overwinter here. Note that this is approximate from our winter-temperature data — check the USDA map for the exact zone before betting an expensive plant on it.
Around 249 feet (76 m) above sea level — flat enough that nothing about Albany's altitude shows up in daily life.
Hurricane season covers June through November, with peak activity in late summer and early fall. For Albany, the practical advice is: have a few days of water and supplies on hand from August onward, know your evacuation route, and don't wait for the news to tell you a storm is "probably nothing" — track the cone yourself.
Worse than the national norm, but it depends where. Albany's ~4,878 per 100,000 reflects a citywide aggregate. Some neighborhoods here are notably safer than the average; others are notably worse. Worth looking at the specific area, not the city-level number.
It's a middle-of-the-road US city on cost. Albany's index of 103 sits within a few points of the national average — your money buys roughly what it would in a typical American metro.
In parts, yes. With a citywide Walk Score of 52/100, Albany has genuinely walkable neighborhoods alongside more sprawled stretches. Transit Score is 48 out of 100. If walkability matters to you, the neighborhood choice will matter more than the city-level number.
As a rule of thumb, plan on about $71,841 to live in Albany the way a $70,000 earner lives in a typical US city. The math gets less forgiving the lower you go below that. Median rent in Albany runs about $1,130/mo — keeping housing under 30% of gross income points to a similar floor on what you'd want to earn.