Cost of Living
per year
per month
How Tempe's prices compare to the US city average across major spending categories.
How far does your salary go in Tempe?
Your $100,000 in Tempe has the same purchasing power as $91,701 in the average US city. You'd need $8,299 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 Tempe's cost index of 109, sorted by closest match.
So why do people move to Tempe? The honest answer involves a few specific things the data backs up — most clearly you can walk to most of what you need and it's an easy city to live in on a bike, plus 2 more things worth knowing. The detail on each one is below.
With a citywide Walk Score of 63/100, Tempe 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 73/100 in Tempe. 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 commute time in Tempe 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.
Tempe has a college-educated share of about 49% 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 Tempe'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.
It's rare. Winters in Tempe run about 47°F — cold-snap mornings happen, real snowfall doesn't, except maybe once a decade.
Not very. Average winter temperatures of about 47°F mean Tempe skips the harsh-winter problem most of the country has. A handful of cold mornings, otherwise sweater weather at worst.
Properly hot. Tempe's summer averages around 105°F with daily highs that routinely break 100°F. The trick to summer here is starting the day at sunrise and staying inside through the worst of it.
Approximately USDA Hardiness Zone 10. That's the band gardeners use to pick plants — anything rated for Zone 10 or colder should survive a typical winter in Tempe. (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 1,181 feet (360 m). That's modest elevation — comparable to most inland-Midwest and Southern cities.
Worse than the national norm, but it depends where. Tempe's ~4,965 per 100,000 reflects a citywide aggregate. Some neighborhoods here are notably safer than the average; others are notably worse. Worth looking at the specific area, not the city-level number.
It's a middle-of-the-road US city on cost. Tempe's index of 109 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 63/100, Tempe has genuinely walkable neighborhoods alongside more sprawled stretches. Transit Score is 48 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 $76,335 to live in Tempe 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 Tempe runs about $1,472/mo — keeping housing under 30% of gross income points to a similar floor on what you'd want to earn.