I have collected and organized all the great data you guys sent along for our What Things Cost project. Thanks so much for helping! The results were really interesting; the most expensive places to grocery shop seem to be Brooklyn, NY and Iqaluit Nunavut, Canada. The most inexpensive places are upstate New York (including Buffalo) and Northern Georgia. Highest prices are bold and red, lowest are italics and blue. I used an exchange rate of $1.00 Canadian = $1.03 USD and €1.00 = $1.42 USD.
Ground Beef: One pound
- Rhode Island – $3.99
- Connecticut – $4.69
- Quebec, Canada $4.05/kg (roughly $4.20 USD)
- San Francisco $4.99
- Ireland €4.00 (400 grams) (roughly $5.70 USD)
- Brooklyn $8.99
- Atlanta $3.89
- Northern Georgia $2.50
- Indianapolis $2.92
- Buffalo, NY $4.87
- Montreal $5.99 (roughly $6.22 USD)
- Upstate NY $1.99
- Iqaluit Nunavut, Canada $6.99 (roughly $7.26 USD)
- Minneapolis, MN $5.00
Whole Milk: One Gallon
- Rhode Island – $3.99
- Connecticut – $3.99
- Quebec, Canada $4.19/2 liters (roughly $4.35 USD)
- San Francisco $3.99
- Ireland €1.49 /2 liters (roughly $2.12 USD)
- Brooklyn $5.99
- Atlanta $3.39
- Northern Georgia $2.69
- Indianapolis $3.99
- Buffalo, NY $2.19
- Montreal $4.06/2 liters (roughly $4.22 USD)
- Upstate NY $2.19
- Iqaluit Nunavut, Canada $6.25/2 liters (roughly $6.49 USD)
- Minneapolis, MN $2.29
Eggs: One Dozen
- Rhode Island – $2.79
- Connecticut – $2.59
- Quebec, Canada $3.05 (roughly $3.17 USD)
- San Francisco $2.19
- Ireland €4.10 (roughly $5.84 USD)
- Brooklyn $2.99
- Atlanta $1.50
- Northern Georgia $1.89
- Indianapolis $2.24
- Buffalo, NY $1.39
- Montreal $1.79 (roughly $1.86 USD)
- Upstate NY $2.69
- Iqaluit Nunavut, Canada $3.99 (roughly $4.14 USD)
- Minneapolis, MN $2.29
Butter: One pound
- Rhode Island – $4.29
- Connecticut – $4.29
- Quebec, Canada $4.79 (roughly $4.97 USD)
- San Francisco $4.39
- Ireland €3.45 (roughly $4.91 USD)
- Brooklyn $6.99
- Atlanta $3.19
- Northern Georgia $2.09
- Indianapolis $3.89
- Buffalo, NY $2.79
- Montreal $5.99 (roughly $6.22 USD)
- Upstate NY $2.79
- Iqaluit Nunavut, Canada $6.39 (roughly $6.64 USD)
- Minneapolis, MN $5.50
Sliced Bread: One loaf
- Rhode Island – $3.79
- Connecticut – $4.99
- Quebec, Canada $3.50 (roughly $3.63 USD)
- San Francisco $3.29
- Ireland €2.09 (roughly $2.98 USD)
- Brooklyn $4.39
- Atlanta $2.85
- Northern Georgia $2.19
- Indianapolis $1.00
- Buffalo, NY $0.59
- Montreal $3.29 (roughly $3.42 USD)
- Upstate NY $1.99
- Iqaluit Nunavut, Canada $3.99 (roughly $4.14 USD)
- Minneapolis, MN $1.00
Rice: One pound, dry
- Rhode Island – $1.07
- Connecticut – $0.82
- Quebec, Canada $4.41/kg (roughly $4.58 USD)
- San Francisco $1.49
- Brooklyn $2.99
- Indianapolis $0.89
- Buffalo, NY $0.99
- Upstate NY $0.99
Beans: One pound, dry
- Connecticut – $0.92
- San Francisco $1.04
- Brooklyn $2.50
- Indianapolis $1.11
- Buffalo, NY $1.29
- Upstate NY $1.49
- Minneapolis, MN $0.69
Bananas: One pound
- Rhode Island – $0.69
- Connecticut – $0.69
- Quebec, Canada $0.89 (roughly $0.92 USD)
- San Francisco $0.90
- Brooklyn $4.89
- Indianapolis $0.54
- Buffalo, NY $0.49
- Montreal $0.79 (roughly $0.82 USD)
- Upstate NY $0.49
- Iqaluit Nunavut, Canada $6.79 (roughly $7.05 USD)
- Minneapolis, MN $3.00
Yogurt: Single-serve 6-8oz container
- Rhode Island – $0.89
- Quebec, Canada $0.62 (roughly $0.64 USD)
- San Francisco $0.85
- Ireland €0.62 (roughly $0.88 USD)
- Brooklyn $6.99
- Northern Georgia $0.79
- Indianapolis $0.70
- Buffalo, NY $0.40
- Montreal $1.09 (roughly $1.13 USD)
- Upstate NY $0.56
- Iqaluit Nunavut, Canada $1.99 (roughly $2.07 USD)
- Minneapolis, MN $0.69
Next week, it’s housing! If you’re interested in participating, I’d like to know the rough average cost of each of the following in your city:
- One bedroom apartment in a safe neighborhood with decent schools – monthly rent.
- Two bedroom single family home in a safe neighborhood with decent schools – total cost.
- Average cost of property taxes for homeowners
- Average cost of renter’s insurance for one year
22 replies on “What Things Cost: Groceries”
I gotta speak up for Brooklyn and point out that a lot of these prices are much more than I have experienced. (Especially if you shop somewhere like the Park Slope Food Coop or join a CSA!) I can imagine some neighborhoods like Williamsburg or Brooklyn heights might be able to get away with some of these rates at the convenience stores serving those neighborhoods, but if you live in Bay Ridge or Sunset Park there is no way people would pay those prices.
Housing in San Diego, neighborhood is Carmel Valley. Median household income is $120k ish
One bedroom apartment in a safe neighborhood with decent schools – monthly rent. $1,665
Two bedroom single family home in a safe neighborhood with decent schools – total cost. I checked two sites and found $668k and $735k.
Average cost of property taxes for homeowners: 1.25% ex. $700k home $8,750. Some neighborhoods also carry an additional Mello Roos tax, which is a special tax for public facilities.
Average cost of renter’s insurance for one year: $240
Prices for Liverpool, UK, in £GBP. I’ve based these on some of the more desirable inner city areas in the south of the city.
1 bed apartment : £500 – £600 pcm plus service charge (around £50 a month), utilities and council (property) tax
Two bedroom single family home in a safe neighborhood with decent schools – total cost:
£140,000 (cheap (!) at the moment, a couple of years ago were more like £150,000-£155,000) plus stamp duty land tax of %1.
Property (council) tax: depends on the worth of your home/rental home, starts at £1007.41 a year, maximum is £3022.24
Renters insurance £100 – £200 depending on coverage and area.
ok, prices for Dublin, Ireland. Bear in mind Dublin is the most expensive place to live in Ireland.
– 1 bed apt.: €950/month, +/- €100 depending on area and facilities. I have friends paying €700pm for 1 bedroom places too.
– 2 bed house (detached): about €350,000 but could be lower depending on the area. There are also a lot more 3 and 4 bedroom houses available, so they’re comparatively cheaper and sometimes actually cheaper.
– property tax is taken as stamp duty: a once-off payment when the house is bought. It doesn’t apply for first-time buyers or where transfer of ownership of a property is part of a divorce settlement. It’s calculated as a percentage of the value of the property: so a €350,000 house would cost an additional €15,750 in stamp duty, but that’s a single payment.
– renter’s insurance. Hmmm. Not very common, but seems to be in the €200-€300 per year range.
this page has stats to gladden a property nerd’s heart: http://www.daft.ie/report/
I’m Oakland, CA with a 2-bedroom for $1280 + gas&electric. Compare that to a 15min BART ride across the Bay to San Francisco where you can easily pay $2500+ for a 2-bedroom in a central neighborhood. Don’t have any experience with property taxes or renter’s insurance (I’m not even sure what renter’s insurance even covers, I should really look into it).
Also, $7 for a single serving of yogurt in Brooklyn?!
for the Canadian costs – why didn’t you convert from metric? $4.41/K is not as different from the other amounts as you make it look considering as there are 2.2Lbs in a kilo.
so like, for bananas, 79 cents a kilo is roughly 39 cents a pound (in CDN $)
Oh Iqaluit. Buying food in the far North is brutal. The government doesn’t seem to be doing much to alleviate the issue either.
As for housing:
I live in Yellowknife, NT. Vacancy rates here stay around 0.9%.
A one bedroom in the only “nice” place in town will run you at least $1500/month incld. utilities.
A two bedroom home, in the same neighborhood, I couldn’t imagine going for less that $2100/month, and that’s fairly conservative.
Not sure on the property taxes. But double wide trailers here go for almost $400,000.
I don’t know averages, but I pay $1100 for a one bedroom in a nice part of Baltimore (Baltimore has nice parts I swear!) And I think my renters insurance is like $120 a year.
I live in Toronto, and I know rent varies widely depending on what area of the city you’re in. I used to live downtown, kitty-corner to the AGO, which cost $1050 a month (plus hydro, which was about $75 a month). Now I live in Little Portugal, out of the core but still in Old Toronto, and I pay $760 a month (plus gas and hydro, which about $20 and $35 a month, respectively) for a much bigger place.
$240 a year for renter’s insurance on my one-bedroom apartment.
Iqaluit is so extremely far north that I guess prices would reflect shipping costs and so on, but what the heck is going on with Brooklyn?
In Vancouver, Canada, people that I know who rent 1-bedroom apartments might pay $900-$1200+/month, and maybe on the lower end of that range for basement suites. I can’t actually afford to live here (moving when I finish school). I couldn’t say for house prices or property taxes, though.
Woah! Why are eggs so expensive in Ireland?!
I was surprised by that too! (I sent the Irish prices in). The only things I can think of were (a) this was in a smaller local shop, rather than a big supermarket, and (b) possibly, EU rules around farming (even non-free range) make producing eggs more expensive. I prefer Irish eggs, though – US eggs are nearly always white and anaemic-looking.
Come here for cheap milk, though!:)
oh, also, sales taxes are included in the full price of all the Irish prices – not sure if the same goes for the US ones?
Ah, that’s it. Sales tax is probably not being added in for the US totals. When I lived in NZ sales tax was automatically added in to everything and I kind of miss that. Made my life so much easier.
I was VERY confused the first time I bought something in the US:) Also, tipping the barman? Who does that?:)
Everyone, if you want them to get you a second drink! :P
This is what I discovered, to my cost and mortification:)
aha – I think this may be an anomaly. The last two half-dozen packs of free-range eggs I’ve bought are €1.80 and €2.50.
So cool!
I’m a terrible person and never sent anything in. :(
The list is in my purse and everything.
This is fascinating! Thanks for the hard work of compiling it all.