Cost of Living
per year
per month
How Cleveland Heights's prices compare to the US city average across major spending categories.
How far does your salary go in Cleveland Heights?
Your $100,000 in Cleveland Heights has the same purchasing power as $111,421 in the average US city. You'd need $11,421 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 Cleveland Heights's cost index of 90, sorted by closest match.
Cleveland Heights has a handful of real selling points, and they're not the kind of thing you find in a brochure. Your dollar carries more weight here and crime statistics come out reassuring are the headliners, plus 3 more things worth knowing. The rest is below.
The composite cost-of-living index lands at 90, a comfortable 10% 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 $1,091/mo against a typical household income of $69,155, which is the kind of ratio that leaves room to save.
The reported crime rate in Cleveland Heights runs about 1,385 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.
With a citywide Walk Score of 55/100, Cleveland Heights sits firmly in the walkable-by-US-standards camp. Pick a central neighborhood and most daily errands happen without keys in your hand.
Average commute time in Cleveland Heights runs around 22 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.
Cleveland Heights has a college-educated share of about 57% 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 Cleveland Heights'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 25°F, Cleveland Heights 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. Cleveland Heights's winter sits around 25°F on average — and that's the average, meaning plenty of nights drop well below zero. People here own gear.
Reliably warm. Cleveland Heights'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.
Cleveland Heights 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 925 feet (282 m). That's modest elevation — comparable to most inland-Midwest and Southern cities.
The headline number is reassuring. Cleveland Heights's reported incident rate of about 1,385 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.
Cleveland Heights is a genuinely affordable city by US standards. The composite index sits at 90 versus the 100 national baseline — about 10% cheaper overall, with housing doing most of the heavy lifting.
In parts, yes. With a citywide Walk Score of 55/100, Cleveland Heights has genuinely walkable neighborhoods alongside more sprawled stretches. Transit Score is 37 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 $62,825 to live in Cleveland Heights 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 Cleveland Heights runs about $1,091/mo — keeping housing under 30% of gross income points to a similar floor on what you'd want to earn.