Cost of Living
per year
per month
How Palm Springs's prices compare to the US city average across major spending categories.
How far does your salary go in Palm Springs?
Your $100,000 in Palm Springs has the same purchasing power as $85,741 in the average US city. You'd need $14,259 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 Springs's cost index of 117, sorted by closest match.
If you're weighing a move to Palm Springs, the short answer is that the city has a few genuine arguments going for it — most obviously the air is clean, not just clean-ish and you'll get your commute time back, plus 1 more things worth knowing. Here's the longer version.
Palm Springs's air quality index averages about 37 — comfortably in the EPA's "good" range. No daily ritual of checking the AQI before going for a run, no smoky-day plans, no surprise asthma flare-ups for the kids. The kind of background condition you notice mostly by its absence.
The average one-way commute in Palm Springs is about 23 minutes — short by US standards (the national average is closer to 27). Over a year of working days, that's hundreds of hours that don't get spent in traffic, which is the kind of thing you notice in the weekend rather than the weekday.
44% of adults 25 and over in Palm Springs hold a bachelor's degree or higher — meaningfully above the US average of around 36%. That correlates with the things you'd expect: stronger schools, more white-collar employers, more bookstores than the population alone would predict.
Reasons are pulled from Palm Springs'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.
Now and then. Palm Springs's winters are cool rather than truly cold — about 37°F on average — so most of the precipitation falls as rain. A snowy morning happens a few times a season; sustained accumulation is rare.
Mild on the cold side. Palm Springs's winter average of about 37°F is the kind of weather where you want a jacket but the heating bill is manageable. Snow is rare, frost is occasional, and the lawn never really browns out.
Genuinely hot. Summer in Palm Springs averages about 103°F, and peak afternoons run well over a hundred. Outdoor plans move to mornings and evenings; AC is the most-used appliance in the house.
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 Springs. (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.)
Palm Springs sits at about 436 feet (133 m) above sea level — low-lying, but with enough cushion that day-to-day life isn't affected by ocean levels.
Higher than average. Palm Springs reports about 5,686 incidents per 100,000 residents, above the US average of around 3,500. Citywide numbers are often dragged up by a few hotspots; specific neighborhoods can be very safe in cities that don't look great on paper, and vice versa.
Yes, noticeably. Palm Springs's cost-of-living index runs 117, about 17% above the US baseline. Housing usually accounts for most of the markup; groceries and services run higher too but with less drama.
Mostly car-dependent. Palm Springs's Walk Score of 40/100 means a handful of errands work on foot — depending on the neighborhood — but most residents still need a car for the rest. Transit Score is 30 out of 100.
Roughly $81,641 a year would match the lifestyle of someone earning $70,000 in an average US city. That's a starting point, not a target — negotiate higher when you can. Median rent in Palm Springs runs about $1,397/mo — keeping housing under 30% of gross income points to a similar floor on what you'd want to earn.