Cost of Living
per year
per month
How Aurora's prices compare to the US city average across major spending categories.
How far does your salary go in Aurora?
Your $100,000 in Aurora has the same purchasing power as $84,317 in the average US city. You'd need $15,683 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 Aurora's cost index of 119, sorted by closest match.
Aurora has a handful of real selling points, and they're not the kind of thing you find in a brochure. Solidly above-average earnings and air quality you don't have to think about are the headliners. The rest is below.
The typical household in Aurora pulls in $78,685 — 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.
Average AQI in Aurora comes in around 37, 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.
Reasons are pulled from Aurora'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 19°F, Aurora 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. Aurora's winter sits around 19°F on average — and that's the average, meaning plenty of nights drop well below zero. People here own gear.
Reliably warm. Aurora's summer averages around 87°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.
Aurora 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.
Roughly 5,535 feet (1,687 m) — high enough to matter physiologically. Plan on a week or two of feeling the altitude before your body recalibrates, drink more water than you think you need, and respect the sun.
Worse than the national norm, but it depends where. Aurora's ~5,480 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.
More expensive than average — by enough to plan around. Aurora's composite index is 119 versus 100 for the US, with rent and home prices driving most of the gap. Salaries in higher-paying industries usually move together, but the math still tightens for everyone else.
Aurora's Walk Score is 8/100, firmly in the car-required tier. Transit Score is 0 out of 100. The layout assumes you'll drive to the grocery store, drive to work, drive everywhere.
As a rule of thumb, plan on about $83,020 to live in Aurora 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 Aurora runs about $1,651/mo — keeping housing under 30% of gross income points to a similar floor on what you'd want to earn.