Cost of Living
per year
per month
How Merced's prices compare to the US city average across major spending categories.
How far does your salary go in Merced?
Your $100,000 in Merced has the same purchasing power as $102,480 in the average US city. You'd need $2,480 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 Merced's cost index of 98, sorted by closest match.
These are the reasons people actually move to Merced, ordered roughly by what shows up loudest in the data. Where the city quietly wins: housing costs and most daily life happens on foot lead, plus 1 more things worth knowing — the rest unpacked below.
Median rent is about $1,197/mo, and the housing sub-index lands at 80 (US avg = 100) in Merced. That's the line item people from coastal metros usually find hardest to believe — and the one that frees up budget for everything else.
With a Walk Score of 93/100, Merced 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.
Bike Score of 70/100 in Merced. 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.
Reasons are pulled from Merced'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, Merced 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 Merced sit around 40°F — sweater-and-jacket weather most days, with the occasional cold front that reminds you it's still winter.
Properly hot. Merced's summer averages around 93°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. Merced'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.
Around 177 feet (54 m) above sea level — flat enough that nothing about Merced's altitude shows up in daily life.
Middle of the pack. Merced comes in around 3,728 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. Merced'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.
Yes, by US standards it's extraordinary. Merced scores 93/100, one of the highest in the country. Living here without a car isn't just possible; for many residents it's the default.
As a rule of thumb, plan on about $68,306 to live in Merced 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 Merced runs about $1,197/mo — keeping housing under 30% of gross income points to a similar floor on what you'd want to earn.