Cost of Living
per year
per month
How Hampton's prices compare to the US city average across major spending categories.
How far does your salary go in Hampton?
Your $100,000 in Hampton has the same purchasing power as $101,999 in the average US city. You'd need $1,999 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 Hampton's cost index of 98, sorted by closest match.
So why do people move to Hampton? The honest answer involves a few specific things the data backs up — most clearly the air is clean, not just clean-ish and you'll get your commute time back. The detail on each one is below.
Average AQI in Hampton comes in around 36, 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.
Average commute time in Hampton 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.
Reasons are pulled from Hampton'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, several times a winter. Hampton's winter average of about 34°F sits right around freezing, so storms typically drop real snow that lingers a few days before slush sets in.
A real winter, but not a punishing one. Hampton averages roughly 34°F in winter, with the coldest mornings dipping into the single digits a few times a year and most days landing somewhere between "chilly" and "actually cold".
Reliably warm. Hampton's summer averages around 85°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.
Approximately USDA Hardiness Zone 8. That's the band gardeners use to pick plants — anything rated for Zone 8 or colder should survive a typical winter in Hampton. (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.)
Barely above the water. Hampton is at about 7 feet (2 m) elevation, and parts of the city are essentially at sea level. Flood-zone maps are worth checking before buying a house.
Officially, Atlantic hurricane season runs June 1 through November 30, but most of the action lands between mid-August and mid-October. For Hampton, that's when to keep half an eye on the National Hurricane Center forecast cone — and when an actual evacuation plan is worth having in the drawer if you're in a low-lying or coastal neighborhood.
Middle of the pack. Hampton comes in around 3,208 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. Hampton's index of 98 sits within a few points of the national average — your money buys roughly what it would in a typical American metro.
Hampton's Walk Score is 22/100, firmly in the car-required tier. Transit Score is 35 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 $68,628 to live in Hampton 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 Hampton runs about $1,255/mo — keeping housing under 30% of gross income points to a similar floor on what you'd want to earn.