Cost of Living
per year
per month
How Palm Desert's prices compare to the US city average across major spending categories.
How far does your salary go in Palm Desert?
Your $100,000 in Palm Desert has the same purchasing power as $85,375 in the average US city. You'd need $14,625 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 Palm Desert's cost index of 117, sorted by closest match.
So why do people move to Palm Desert? The honest answer involves a few specific things the data backs up — most clearly paychecks come in above the us average and you'll get your commute time back, plus 1 more things worth knowing. The detail on each one is below.
The typical household in Palm Desert pulls in $75,691 — 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 commute time in Palm Desert 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.
Palm Desert has a college-educated share of about 40% 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 Palm Desert'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 37°F, Palm Desert 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 Palm Desert sit around 37°F — sweater-and-jacket weather most days, with the occasional cold front that reminds you it's still winter.
Properly hot. Palm Desert's summer averages around 103°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.
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 Palm Desert. (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 180 feet (55 m) above sea level — flat enough that nothing about Palm Desert's altitude shows up in daily life.
Worse than the national norm, but it depends where. Palm Desert's ~4,249 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. Palm Desert's composite index is 117 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.
Palm Desert's Walk Score is 22/100, firmly in the car-required tier. The layout assumes you'll drive to the grocery store, drive to work, drive everywhere.
As a rule of thumb, plan on about $81,991 to live in Palm Desert 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 Palm Desert runs about $1,564/mo — keeping housing under 30% of gross income points to a similar floor on what you'd want to earn.