Cost of Living
per year
per month
How St. Louis Park's prices compare to the US city average across major spending categories.
How far does your salary go in St. Louis Park?
Your $100,000 in St. Louis Park has the same purchasing power as $94,073 in the average US city. You'd need $5,927 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 St. Louis Park's cost index of 106, sorted by closest match.
So why do people move to St. Louis Park? The honest answer involves a few specific things the data backs up — most clearly paychecks come in above the us average and jobs are easy to find right now, plus 5 more things worth knowing. The detail on each one is below.
The typical household in St. Louis Park pulls in $94,263 — 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.
Unemployment in St. Louis Park is running about 2.8% — below the typical US baseline of around 4%. That usually translates to a job market where employers compete for workers more than the other way around, which is the better side of that equation to be on if you're the one moving.
With a citywide Walk Score of 62/100, St. Louis Park sits firmly in the walkable-by-US-standards camp. Pick a central neighborhood and most daily errands happen without keys in your hand.
Bike Score of 64/100 in St. Louis Park. 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.
Average AQI in St. Louis Park comes in around 37, 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.
Average commute time in St. Louis Park runs around 21 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.
St. Louis Park has a college-educated share of about 63% 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 St. Louis Park'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.
Snow is just part of the winter in St. Louis Park. Average temperatures around 12°F mean the ground stays covered from December well into March, and a snowblower is less optional than aspirational.
Properly cold. St. Louis Park's winter sits around 12°F on average — and that's the average, meaning plenty of nights drop well below zero. People here own gear.
Reliably warm. St. Louis Park'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 6. That's the band gardeners use to pick plants — anything rated for Zone 6 or colder should survive a typical winter in St. Louis Park. (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.)
Roughly 925 feet (282 m). That's modest elevation — comparable to most inland-Midwest and Southern cities.
Middle of the pack. St. Louis Park comes in around 3,684 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. St. Louis Park's index of 106 sits within a few points of the national average — your money buys roughly what it would in a typical American metro.
In parts, yes. With a citywide Walk Score of 62/100, St. Louis Park has genuinely walkable neighborhoods alongside more sprawled stretches. Transit Score is 34 out of 100. If walkability matters to you, the neighborhood choice will matter more than the city-level number.
As a rule of thumb, plan on about $74,410 to live in St. Louis Park 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 St. Louis Park runs about $1,504/mo — keeping housing under 30% of gross income points to a similar floor on what you'd want to earn.