Fall of America Or the new Cost of Living Ranking

As the US dollar has been falling, so is the cost of living in US cities. According to the latest ranking done by Mercer, European and Asian cities now dominate Cost of Living Top 50 Cities ranking. New York, #1 most expensive city to live in the States, is only on the 22nd position. No other US city is in Top 50.

Website says that Mercer's survey covers 143 cities across six continents and measures the comparative cost of over 200 items in each location, including housing, transport, food, clothing, household goods and entertainment. It is the world's most comprehensive cost of living survey and is used to help multinational companies and governments determine compensation allowances for their expatriate employees.

Talking about Moscow over the past posts, it's still the most expensive city in the world, followed by Tokyo and London.

Interestingly, Almaty is in Top 50 as well. I could only guess that this is due to the high prices of real estate in Almaty, as well as due to the fact that Kazakhstan has huge oil reserves. It's even more important in recent increase in oil prices. Though it dropped from 30th position to 44th. That might be due to the global credit crisis that affected the real estate and construction business in Kazakhstan.

Also, Prague also had a huge jump from 49th position to 29th position in a year. Here in Prague, we felt the rise in prices as well, though I have to admit that it didn't hit much our pockets.

Top 10
1 Moscow Russia
2 Tokyo Japan
3 London UK
4 Oslo Norway
5 Seoul South Korea
6 Hong Kong China
7 Copenhagen Denmark
8 Geneva Switzerland
9 Zurich Switzerland
10 Milan Italy


See the full ranking here.