Cost of Living in San Diego: A Guide for Homebuyers

Published on January 11th, 2024
11 min read

Richard Haddad Executive Editor
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Richard Haddad Executive Editor

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Richard Haddad is the executive editor of HomeLight.com. He works with an experienced content team that oversees the company’s blog featuring in-depth articles about the home buying and selling process, homeownership news, home care and design tips, and related real estate trends. Previously, he served as an editor and content producer for World Company, Gannett, and Western News & Info, where he also served as news director and director of internet operations.

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If you’re considering a move to San Diego, understanding the cost of living in “America’s Finest City” can help you make plans with more confidence.

In this guide, we break down what makes up the cost of living in San Diego, from housing expenses to food and healthcare costs. We’ll provide data from local cost of living index and comparison tools, and take a look at how San Diego ranks for livability compared to other U.S. cities.

We’ll also share a handy set of additional online resources to measure and compare cost of living and expenses in other California cities.

What makes up the average ‘cost of living’ in San Diego?

When you’re planning to live in a new city, the cost of living there will be a combination of expenses required to maintain your desired lifestyle. This is especially important to explore when moving to a city in California. Cambridge Dictionary defines cost of living as “the amount of money that people need to spend in order to buy basic goods or services such as food, clothes, and a place to live.”

This overall cost can vary significantly based on location, even within California. But the living expenses you’ll pay for typically include the following categories:

Housing (mortgage/rent)
Energy (utility costs)
Food (groceries)
Transportation (vehicle or transit systems)
Healthcare (doctors, hospitals, dentists, etc.)

However, the costs often extend beyond these basics to cover other expenses, such as:

Clothing
Education
Childcare
Entertainment

These elements, when combined, establish the core costs associated with a particular way of living. However, the standard of living you achieve is largely influenced by your income and debts, and how the dollar amounts compare to the costs of basic needs in the location where you live or, in this case, the San Diego community where you might want to live.

Let’s take a quick look at some ways you can compare the cost of living you have now with what you might experience if you move to San Diego.

What’s a San Diego cost of living index (CLI)?

A cost of living index (CLI) monitors how much these basic expenses go up or down over time in different states, cities, or regions. They provide a way for you to compare the price of maintaining a particular standard of living.

The CLI for a city like San Diego is calculated by assessing the price of essential goods and services, such as housing, food, transportation, and healthcare, in different areas.

A local index is typically standardized, with a base city being assigned a baseline index value (usually set at 100). Other cities are then compared against this benchmark. For example, a California community with a CLI of 125 would signify that living there is 25% more expensive than the base location, while an index of 75 indicates it’s 25% less expensive.

A cost of living index will typically break down and score each basic expense by category. Here are separate scores for San Diego from the AXIOS San Diego Cost of Living Index:

Overall CLI score: 141.7
Housing: 214.2
Healthcare: 103
Transportation: 126
Misc. goods and services: 112.4
Grocery items: 117.3
Utilities: 104.3

Data source used: C2ER Council for Economic and Social Research

According to AXIOS, San Diego is America’s eighth priciest city in the nation.

Cost perspective

AXIOS notes that San Diego’s cost of living is about 40 points higher than the average U.S. city, based on expenses for housing and other core goods and services, placing it near the same level as cities like Los Angeles, Oakland, Seattle, and Washington, D.C.

Aerial view of a neighborhood that one might encounter when moving to a new state.

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Additional cost of living data for San Diego

Now let’s look at some real-world dollar amounts collected by various cost of living sources. Here’s more of what you can expect if you move to San Diego.

Expatistan, a cost-of-living data site, provides these monthly cost estimates for San Diego:

Family of four estimated monthly costs: $8,109
Single person estimated monthly costs: $5,589

Best Places lists these housing estimates on their San Diego cost of living pages:

San Diego housing data

Number of homes	545,792
Median home age	44 years
Median home cost	$833,500
Home appreciation rate (last 12 months)	18.2%
Home appreciation rate (last 5 years)	57.2%
Home appreciation rate (last 10 years)	132.2%
Property tax rate (per $1,000 of value)	$7.15
Property taxes paid (average home)	$4,749
Homes owned	44.5%
Housing vacant	6.7%
Homes rented	48.8%

Source: BestPlaces.com

San Diego tax rates

State individual income tax rate: California has a graduated state individual income tax, with rates ranging from 1.00% to 13.30 %
State sales tax rate: 7.25%
San Diego sales tax rate: 7.750%
Effective property tax rate (percentage of home value): 0.87%

How does San Diego rank for livability?

Along with the cost of living, you might be curious how San Diego ranks as far as livability or quality of life. According to the AARP Livability Index, San Diego has an above-average quality of life score of 55.

The index then provides an overall score between 0-100 (higher is better), based on rankings from seven categories. San Diego did especially well in the health category.

Overall Livability Score: 55
Housing (affordability and access): 46
Neighborhood (proximity and security): 66
Transportation (safety and convenience): 46
Environment (clean air and water): 40
Health (prevention, access, and quality): 71
Engagement (civic and social involvement): 66
Opportunity (inclusion and possibilities): 52

For perspective, the highest-ranked city scores in each category were:

Very Large: San Francisco, 66
Large: Madison, Wisconsin, 67
Mid-size: Portland Main, 68
Small: Aspen, Colorado, 73

No city earned a perfect score of 100. You can learn more about this livability index on AARP’s methodology page.

Check your current city’s livability score

AARP provides a Livability Index Search Page where it scores communities and even neighborhoods across the country for services and amenities that impact your life. You can check your current city score or others where you might like to live near San Diego. The livability index Community Finder tool allows you to filter by location, community size, livability measures, and other features, such as state and local plans to create age-friendly communities.

Additional cost of living indexes

Here are some cost of living index links to research additional San Diego living expenses:

Statista: Provides free access to many basic statistics. Paid subscriptions are available for more detailed information about California communities.
ACCRA (C2ER): Maintained by the Council for Community and Economic Research. This is a paid service that maintains one of the largest databases of cost of living metrics for San Diego and other California cities.
World Population Review CLI page: This website provides a free search-by-state tool at the bottom of its Cost of Living Index page.
Numbeo: This crowd-sourced CLI promotes itself as “the world’s largest database of user-contributed data about cities and countries worldwide.” This service can show you user-provided insights such as the cost of an inexpensive restaurant in San Diego or the perceived presence of crime in different parts of California. It’s free for personal use.

Why are people moving to (or from) California?

According to the United Van Lines 47th Annual Movers Study that tracks migrations within the United States, here are the reasons people are moving into California, or moving away to other states.

Primary reasons people are moving

Inbound	Reason for the move	Outbound
7.60%	Retirement	12.50%
4.80%	Health	3.10%
20.00%	Family	28.60%
11.60%	Lifestyle	10.20%
40.90%	Job	22.40%
0.30%	Cost	8.40%

Total inbound: 42.5%

Total outbound: 57.5%

Budgeting for your move to San Diego

Below is a collection of handy online tools you can use to help estimate your moving costs and living expenses in San Diego — from how much you’ll need to pay a mover to how much your current home might sell for and the proceeds you can expect.

1. Online move cost estimators

With today’s smart technology, you can find a wide variety of tools to help you estimate the cost of paying for a mover, or how to find a trusted mover for your relocation to San Diego. Some examples include:

2. Cost of living calculators

Cost of living calculators are different from cost of living indexes. These tools, which are typically free, provide a comparison based on income and regional costs for housing, transportation, food, healthcare, and other basic necessities in the two locations you select.

For example, if you live in Denver, you can view a side-by-side cost comparison with San Diego expenses — or other nearby California cities. Some popular cost-of-living calculators include:

3. Living wage and budget calculators

Living Wage Calculator: Designed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), this calculator can help you estimate the local wage rate that you’ll need as a full-time San Diego worker in order to cover the costs of your family’s basic living expenses.
Family Budget Calculator: This tool, provided by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), estimates the income your family will need to attain a modest — yet adequate — standard of living in your new San Diego community. Choose from 10 family types.

4. Homebuyer calculators

Home Affordability Calculator: Understand the costs associated with buying a home in San Diego and find out how much home you can afford before you start shopping or planning a move.
Down Payment Calculator: Estimate how much you might need to put down on a home in San Diego and learn more about the loan options that work best for you.
Closing Costs Calculator: Find out how much cash you’ll need for closing costs on a San Diego house, including estimated lender and third-party fees.

5. Home seller calculators

Home Value Estimator: Get a preliminary estimate of what your current home is worth, along with options to help you get the best price when you’re ready to sell.
Best Time to Sell Calculator: Use this calculator that incorporates nationwide real estate transaction data to help time your move.
Agent Commissions Calculator: Learn how much you might pay in real estate agent commissions when selling a house in your current market.
Net Proceeds Calculator: Get a ballpark idea of the net proceeds you could earn from the sale of your existing home.

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Selling your current home and buying in San Diego

To make your move smoother and less stressful, modern real estate solution companies like HomeLight have created innovative programs to help you buy a house before you sell your old one.

Watch the short video below to learn about HomeLight’s Buy Before You Sell program that lets you move into your new San Diego home now and sell your current house with peace of mind and on your timeline.

Partner with a professional to find your new San Diego home

As you plan your move, HomeLight can connect you with a top-performing, trusted real estate agent in your current city or in the San Diego community where you’d like to live. We analyze over 27 million transactions and thousands of reviews to determine which agent is best for you based on your needs.

For the best of both worlds — coming and going — ask your agent about HomeLight’s Buy Before You Sell program to help take the uncertainty out of your San Diego home purchase.

Header Image Source: (Blake Weyland/ Unsplash)

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At HomeLight, our vision is a world where every real estate transaction is simple, certain, and satisfying. Therefore, we promote strict editorial integrity in each of our posts.

Richard Haddad

Executive Editor

Richard Haddad is the executive editor of HomeLight.com. He works with an experienced content team that oversees the company’s blog featuring in-depth articles about the home buying and selling process, homeownership news, home care and design tips, and related real estate trends. Previously, he served as an editor and content producer for World Company, Gannett, and Western News & Info, where he also served as news director and director of internet operations.