REAL NUMBERS
The best US cities to raise a family
The 50 biggest US metro areas, ranked by what a family with kids has left each year after federal, state and local taxes, the home and daycare. Start with the typical family with kids in each city, or pick two jobs, or enter your own income. Defaults are from our Episode 5 video, checked . Change anything.
Sources (checked )
- Income, home value, property tax and 3-bedroom rent: Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2024 1-year, metro areas (median income of families with own children, median home value, median real estate taxes paid, median gross rent for 3 bedrooms). Home insurance: ACS 2024 PUMS, average paid by owners with a mortgage, by state
- Federal tax: IRS Rev. Proc. 2025-32, tax year 2026, married filing jointly (standard deduction $32,200; child tax credit $2,200 per child, phasing out from $400,000); child and dependent care credit, IRC 21 as amended in 2025 (IRS draft 2026 Form 2441 instructions)
- Payroll tax: Social Security Administration, 2026 wage base $184,500 (6.2%); Medicare 1.45% plus 0.9% over $250,000
- State income taxes: each state's revenue department, 2026 rates, deductions, exemptions and credits (including state child-care credits), plus CA SDI and Washington's WA Cares and paid leave premiums
- Local wage taxes: Pennsylvania DCED municipal tax register (population-weighted suburban earned income tax), Ohio municipal, Maryland county, Indiana county and Kentucky occupational rates. City-only taxes (New York City, Philadelphia, Detroit, St. Louis, Kansas City) are left out: the family can live outside the core city
- Daycare: US Department of Labor Women's Bureau, National Database of Childcare Prices (median weekly price of center care for a toddler, latest year 2018–2022), raised to Sep 2026 prices with the CPI for day care and preschool (BLS). Indiana has no prices in the database, so Indianapolis gets the median of the other 49 cities [assumption]
- Mortgage rate: Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey, 30-year fixed, Oct 8, 2026: 7.40%
- Wages by job: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, metro median annual wage (registered nurses, electricians, elementary school teachers, software developers, all jobs)
- Kids' mobility: Chetty, Hendren, Kline and Saez (2014), Where is the Land of Opportunity?, absolute upward mobility by commuting zone (children born 1980–82). Riverside shares the Los Angeles zone, Hartford the Bridgeport zone, Fort Worth is in the Dallas metro
For education, not financial advice.
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