California Is the Least Affordable of Any State (2026)

1. Zillow Observed Rent Index · 2026
2. Zillow Home Value Index
3. Census American Community Survey, median household income
4. BEA Regional Price Parities
5. AAA gas prices, metro and state averages
6. EIA residential electricity prices
7. Tax Foundation, state and local sales tax rates, 2026
8. Tax Foundation, state income tax rates, 2026
9. Census American Community Survey, property taxes and home values

How we got this. The Affordability Score is The Honest Local’s own recipe. Each source ranks every place on its own from 0 to 100 and the score is the average, so a place has to do well on all of them to lead. We don't publish a cost of living number pulled from one source. We blend three groups, each ranked on its own against every other place that has it, then averaged. Housing is the typical rent over a year and the typical home value, each as a share of the median household income there. Everyday costs are the federal price parity for goods, the best free read on groceries and basics at the metro level, plus the price of gas and of household electricity. Taxes are the combined state and local sales tax, the top state income tax rate on wages (Washington taxes only capital gains, so it reads zero) and the effective property tax rate. Each of those eight figures ranks every place on its own from 0 to 100, with a lower cost or tax always scoring higher. A group's score is the average of the figures it has, and the final score is the average of the three groups. A place missing a whole group is scored on the rest, never handed a fake zero. Rank 1 is the most affordable. Cities and states rank as two separate lists, never against each other. It refreshes monthly, with the yearly figures (income, price parities, tax rates) updated as each agency publishes.

Rankings by The Honest Local from public data, one page per list, refreshed on each source’s own cycle. Places with no reading are left out rather than estimated. Every value on this page carries its source in the page’s structured data.

Photos Shutterstock/UladzikKryhin · Shutterstock.