Cost of Living
per year
per month
How Ann Arbor's prices compare to the US city average across major spending categories.
How far does your salary go in Ann Arbor?
Your $100,000 in Ann Arbor has the same purchasing power as $91,802 in the average US city. You'd need $8,198 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 Ann Arbor's cost index of 109, sorted by closest match.
These are the reasons people actually move to Ann Arbor, ordered roughly by what shows up loudest in the data. A higher-income labor market than the national norm and low unemployment, plenty of openings lead, plus 5 more things worth knowing — the rest unpacked below.
The typical household in Ann Arbor pulls in $78,546 — comfortably above the US median. Combined with the cost of living here, the income-to-expense ratio works out better than a quick look at either number in isolation would suggest.
At about 3.6% unemployment, Ann Arbor's labor market is running on the tight side. Easier to land a role, easier to negotiate, easier to leave one job for a better one — the practical things that matter when you're actually looking.
Reported crime in Ann Arbor comes in around 2,046 per 100,000 — under the national baseline of about 3,500. Worth digging into specific neighborhoods before settling on one, but the city-level picture is on the safer side.
With a Walk Score of 90/100, Ann Arbor is in the category where car ownership becomes a real choice rather than the default. Errands work on foot, the city's built dense enough that things are actually close together, and the parking-and-gas budget can quietly disappear. Transit Score comes in at 74/100 too, so even the trips that are too far to walk are usually doable on a bus or train.
Bike Score of 81/100 in Ann Arbor. 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 commute time in Ann Arbor runs around 20 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.
Ann Arbor has a college-educated share of about 78% 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 Ann Arbor'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.
Ann Arbor does winter the real way. Averages around 22°F keep snow on the ground for weeks at a time, and lakes and rivers tend to freeze hard enough to walk on.
Properly cold. Ann Arbor's winter sits around 22°F on average — and that's the average, meaning plenty of nights drop well below zero. People here own gear.
Reliably warm. Ann Arbor's summer averages around 82°F, the kind of heat where you remember to leave the house before noon for outdoor things and accept that the back of your shirt will be wet by lunchtime.
Zone 7, give or take a half-zone. Ann Arbor's typical winter low puts it in that band on the USDA Hardiness map, which is what nurseries label plants against. Use Zone 7 as your starting filter; the USDA's interactive map is more precise for borderline cases.
Roughly 892 feet (272 m). That's modest elevation — comparable to most inland-Midwest and Southern cities.
Middle of the pack. Ann Arbor comes in around 2,046 per 100,000, basically the national average. The interesting question is usually which neighborhood, not which city — that's where the real variation lives.
It's a middle-of-the-road US city on cost. Ann Arbor's index of 109 sits within a few points of the national average — your money buys roughly what it would in a typical American metro.
Yes, by US standards it's extraordinary. Ann Arbor scores 90/100, one of the highest in the country. Transit Score is 74 out of 100. Living here without a car isn't just possible; for many residents it's the default.
As a rule of thumb, plan on about $76,251 to live in Ann Arbor 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 Ann Arbor runs about $1,472/mo — keeping housing under 30% of gross income points to a similar floor on what you'd want to earn.