Cost of Living
per year
per month
How Pasco's prices compare to the US city average across major spending categories.
How far does your salary go in Pasco?
Your $100,000 in Pasco has the same purchasing power as $101,906 in the average US city. You'd need $1,906 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 Pasco's cost index of 98, sorted by closest match.
So why do people move to Pasco? The honest answer involves a few specific things the data backs up — most clearly housing is the bargain and no state income tax, plus 2 more things worth knowing. The detail on each one is below.
Median rent is about $1,150/mo, and the housing sub-index lands at 94 (US avg = 100) in Pasco. That's the line item people from coastal metros usually find hardest to believe — and the one that frees up budget for everything else.
Washington is one of the handful of US states with no state income tax on wages, so the only income-tax bite on a paycheck in Pasco is federal. For a household earning $100k, that's a tangible four-figure difference every year compared to a comparable salary in California or New York. (Washington taxes some long-term capital gains over a high threshold, but ordinary wages and salaries are not taxed.)
The typical household in Pasco pulls in $75,316 — 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 Pasco runs around 23 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 Pasco'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. Pasco's winter average of about 25°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. Pasco averages roughly 25°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. Pasco's summer averages around 81°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 Pasco. (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 394 feet (120 m) above sea level — flat enough that nothing about Pasco's altitude shows up in daily life.
Middle of the pack. Pasco comes in around 3,182 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. Pasco'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.
Pasco's Walk Score is 3/100, firmly in the car-required tier. Transit Score is 24 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 $68,691 to live in Pasco 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 Pasco runs about $1,150/mo — keeping housing under 30% of gross income points to a similar floor on what you'd want to earn.