Cost of Living
per year
per month
How Passaic's prices compare to the US city average across major spending categories.
How far does your salary go in Passaic?
Your $100,000 in Passaic has the same purchasing power as $80,405 in the average US city. You'd need $19,595 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 Passaic's cost index of 124, sorted by closest match.
So why do people move to Passaic? The honest answer involves a few specific things the data backs up — most clearly lower-than-average crime numbers and you don't actually need a car, plus 1 more things worth knowing. The detail on each one is below.
Reported crime in Passaic comes in around 2,556 per 100,000 — under the national baseline of about 3,500. Worth digging into specific neighborhoods before settling on one, but the city-level picture is on the safer side.
With a Walk Score of 94/100, Passaic 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. Transit Score comes in at 59/100 too, so even the trips that are too far to walk are usually doable on a bus or train.
Average AQI in Passaic comes in around 42, 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.
Reasons are pulled from Passaic'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. Passaic's winter average of about 28°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. Passaic averages roughly 28°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. Passaic's summer averages around 84°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 Passaic. (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 102 feet (31 m) above sea level — flat enough that nothing about Passaic's altitude shows up in daily life.
Officially, Atlantic hurricane season runs June 1 through November 30, but most of the action lands between mid-August and mid-October. For Passaic, 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. Passaic comes in around 2,556 per 100,000, basically the national average. The interesting question is usually which neighborhood, not which city — that's where the real variation lives.
More expensive than average — by enough to plan around. Passaic's composite index is 124 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.
Yes, by US standards it's extraordinary. Passaic scores 94/100, one of the highest in the country. Transit Score is 59 out of 100. Living here without a car isn't just possible; for many residents it's the default.
As a rule of thumb, plan on about $87,059 to live in Passaic 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 Passaic runs about $1,341/mo — keeping housing under 30% of gross income points to a similar floor on what you'd want to earn.