Cost of Living
per year
per month
How Syracuse's prices compare to the US city average across major spending categories.
How far does your salary go in Syracuse?
Your $100,000 in Syracuse has the same purchasing power as $106,906 in the average US city. You'd need $6,906 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 Syracuse's cost index of 94, sorted by closest match.
Syracuse has a handful of real selling points, and they're not the kind of thing you find in a brochure. Your dollar carries more weight here and genuinely walkable, not just walkable-on-paper are the headliners, plus 3 more things worth knowing. The rest is below.
The composite cost-of-living index lands at 94, a comfortable 6% under the US norm. It shows up most clearly in housing, which is where the gap to coastal metros usually opens up. Median rent in town runs about $932/mo against a typical household income of $43,584, which is the kind of ratio that leaves room to save.
With a Walk Score of 92/100, Syracuse 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 60/100 too, so even the trips that are too far to walk are usually doable on a bus or train.
Bike Score of 72/100 in Syracuse. 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 Syracuse comes in around 30, 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 Syracuse runs around 18 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 Syracuse'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 — and a lot of it. With winter averages near 21°F, Syracuse sees real accumulation most years. Salt for the steps, tires that handle ice, and a sense of humor about February are the usual costs of admission.
Properly cold. Syracuse's winter sits around 21°F on average — and that's the average, meaning plenty of nights drop well below zero. People here own gear.
Reliably warm. Syracuse's summer averages around 80°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.
Syracuse falls in roughly USDA Zone 7. The zone classification is based on average annual minimum temperatures, so it's the right lookup for whether perennials and trees will overwinter here. Note that this is approximate from our winter-temperature data — check the USDA map for the exact zone before betting an expensive plant on it.
Around 413 feet (126 m) above sea level — flat enough that nothing about Syracuse's altitude shows up in daily life.
Hurricane season covers June through November, with peak activity in late summer and early fall. For Syracuse, the practical advice is: have a few days of water and supplies on hand from August onward, know your evacuation route, and don't wait for the news to tell you a storm is "probably nothing" — track the cone yourself.
Middle of the pack. Syracuse comes in around 3,959 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. Syracuse's index of 94 sits within a few points of the national average — your money buys roughly what it would in a typical American metro.
Yes, by US standards it's extraordinary. Syracuse scores 92/100, one of the highest in the country. Transit Score is 60 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 $65,478 to live in Syracuse 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 Syracuse runs about $932/mo — keeping housing under 30% of gross income points to a similar floor on what you'd want to earn.