Cost of Living
per year
per month
How Daly City's prices compare to the US city average across major spending categories.
How far does your salary go in Daly City?
Your $100,000 in Daly City has the same purchasing power as $66,782 in the average US city. You'd need $33,218 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 Daly City's cost index of 150, sorted by closest match.
So why do people move to Daly City? The honest answer involves a few specific things the data backs up — most clearly paychecks here run high and lower-than-average crime numbers, plus 2 more things worth knowing. The detail on each one is below.
Daly City's typical household earns $114,910, which puts it in the top tier of US cities for household income. The bottom of the wage distribution isn't necessarily different from anywhere else, but the median and above sit meaningfully higher.
Reported crime in Daly City comes in around 2,532 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 91/100, Daly City 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 82/100 too, so even the trips that are too far to walk are usually doable on a bus or train.
Daly City has a college-educated share of about 39% 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 Daly City'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 43°F, Daly City 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 Daly City sit around 43°F — sweater-and-jacket weather most days, with the occasional cold front that reminds you it's still winter.
Warm without being brutal. Summer in Daly City sits about 72°F on average. Afternoons can push into the high 80s, but mornings and evenings are usually genuinely pleasant.
Approximately USDA Hardiness Zone 9. That's the band gardeners use to pick plants — anything rated for Zone 9 or colder should survive a typical winter in Daly City. (The estimate is derived from our winter-temperature data; the official USDA map uses station-level annual minimums and may differ by half a zone.)
Around 407 feet (124 m) above sea level — flat enough that nothing about Daly City's altitude shows up in daily life.
Middle of the pack. Daly City comes in around 2,532 per 100,000, basically the national average. The interesting question is usually which neighborhood, not which city — that's where the real variation lives.
Significantly. Daly City's index of 150 puts it in the top tier of US cities for cost of living — roughly 50% above the national baseline. The pattern is familiar: housing eats a large share of incomes, and people earning median-equivalent jobs from cheaper metros feel the difference fast.
Yes, by US standards it's extraordinary. Daly City scores 91/100, one of the highest in the country. Transit Score is 82 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 $104,818 to live in Daly City 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 Daly City runs about $2,554/mo — keeping housing under 30% of gross income points to a similar floor on what you'd want to earn.