Cost of Living
per year
per month
How Auburn's prices compare to the US city average across major spending categories.
How far does your salary go in Auburn?
Your $100,000 in Auburn has the same purchasing power as $122,474 in the average US city. You'd need $22,474 less 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 Auburn's cost index of 82, sorted by closest match.
These are the reasons people actually move to Auburn, ordered roughly by what shows up loudest in the data. Living costs come in under the US baseline and low unemployment, plenty of openings lead, plus 4 more things worth knowing — the rest unpacked below.
The composite cost-of-living index lands at 82, a comfortable 18% under the US norm. It shows up most clearly in housing, which is where the gap to coastal metros usually opens up. Median rent in town runs about $995/mo against a typical household income of $55,509, which is the kind of ratio that leaves room to save.
At about 3.0% unemployment, Auburn'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.
The reported crime rate in Auburn runs about 1,332 per 100,000 residents — meaningfully below the national norm. People who care about safety as a baseline rather than a feature tend to land in cities with numbers like these.
Bike Score of 60/100 in Auburn. 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 Auburn 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.
Auburn has a college-educated share of about 62% 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 Auburn'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.
Not really a snow town. With winters averaging 40°F, Auburn sits in the mild-cold band where snowflakes appear occasionally and everything melts within a day. Most years see one storm worth talking about.
Cool, not cold. Winters in Auburn sit around 40°F — sweater-and-jacket weather most days, with the occasional cold front that reminds you it's still winter.
Properly hot. Auburn's summer averages around 92°F with daily highs that routinely break 100°F. The trick to summer here is starting the day at sunrise and staying inside through the worst of it.
Zone 9, give or take a half-zone. Auburn's typical winter low puts it in that band on the USDA Hardiness map, which is what nurseries label plants against. Use Zone 9 as your starting filter; the USDA's interactive map is more precise for borderline cases.
Roughly 686 feet (209 m). That's modest elevation — comparable to most inland-Midwest and Southern cities.
Atlantic basin storms can form from June 1 to November 30, but the serious ones cluster in August, September, and the first half of October. Residents of Auburn learn the season's rhythm fast: watch the cone, board up when it's the call, and don't shrug off the slow-mover storms — those are usually the ones that flood.
The headline number is reassuring. Auburn's reported incident rate of about 1,332 per 100,000 is comfortably below the US norm of around 3,500 per 100k. Specific neighborhoods always vary, but the broader picture is on the safer side.
Auburn is a genuinely affordable city by US standards. The composite index sits at 82 versus the 100 national baseline — about 18% cheaper overall, with housing doing most of the heavy lifting.
In parts, yes. With a citywide Walk Score of 51/100, Auburn has genuinely walkable neighborhoods alongside more sprawled stretches. If walkability matters to you, the neighborhood choice will matter more than the city-level number.
As a rule of thumb, plan on about $57,155 to live in Auburn 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 Auburn runs about $995/mo — keeping housing under 30% of gross income points to a similar floor on what you'd want to earn.