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Survey ranks
Honolulu fifth in
U.S. for cost
of living

San Jose, Calif., and
San Francisco
top the list

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By Rick Daysog
Star-Bulletin

Honolulu's cost of living is 22.5 percent higher than the typical U.S. city.

But the good news is that its cheaper to live here than in boom towns like San Francisco and San Jose, Calif.

Runzheimer International, a Wisconsin-based consulting firm specializing in cost-of-living studies, recently ranked Honolulu as the fifth most expensive metropolitan area in the nation behind San Jose, San Francisco, New York and Boston.

The survey -- which examined typical living costs for a family of four in 300 cities nationwide -- said that San Jose's living costs are 66.5 percent higher than those in the standard U.S. city while San Francisco's costs are 49.2 percent higher than the national average.

Boston's living costs were nearly identical to Honolulu's at 22.8 percent above the national norm where as New York's costs are 23.8 percent higher than the average.

Lubbock, Texas, was the least most expensive city at 14.9 percent below the U.S. standard, followed by Augusta, Ga. where living costs are 14.5 percent below the average.

The Runzheimer survey is based on typical expenses made by a family of four, including housing, transportation, food, medical care, clothing and furnishings. The latest Runzheimer study reflects a trend toward lower local living costs.

During the boom years of the early 1990s, the Honolulu had the dubious honor of being the nation's most expensive city or next most costliest city behind New York. Back then, local economists talked about a so-called "paradise tax" in which local living cost were a third higher than on the mainland.

But the economic downturn of the past decade, combined with the influx of big-box retailers and lower-cost housing, has put a lid of the inflationary growth of the past decade.