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Week of March 18th-Here's how much it costs a 4-person family to live in the 15 largest US cities

March 18, 2018

The cost of raising a family looks very different depending on where you are. It will cost you about $58,906 a year to raise a four-person family in Brownsville, Texas, for example, but if you move to San Francisco, California, that expense more that doubles, to $148,439.

That's according to the Economic Policy Institute's newly updated family budget calculator. The calculator shows the income a family needs in order to attain a modest yet adequate standard of living across the U.S. In other words, it measures "what families need to get by," says EPI Senior Economist Elise Gould.

The calculator factors in geographic differences in cost of living and seven main expenses: housing, food, transportation, child care, health care, other basic necessities and taxes.

 

"In order to keep the budgets modest, the calculator notably does not include many expenses associated with a middle-class lifestyle, such as paying off student loans or saving for college or retirement," the EPI notes.

The EPI gathered data for 10 family types in all 3,142 counties and in all 611 metro areas. Below, CNBC Make It highlighted the monthly and annual cost of living for a four-person family (two adults, two children) in the 15 largest U.S. cities. We also included the cost of two of the biggest expenses families face: housing and child care.  Read more



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