Best Cities to Move to From North Carolina (2026)

Here's Naperville by the numbers — and there's a lot to like. Cost index: 122. Rent: $2,157/month. Income: $150,937/year. Home price: $594,498. Population: 150,245. The strongest category is Utilities at 112; the most expensive is Housing at 154. Translate that rent to annual numbers, and residents are costing renters $3,144 more per year vs. the national median. For anyone running the numbers, this is where it clicks.

Real talk: What does daily life actually cost in Sugar Land? Start with the 17% rent-to-income ratio — that's the kind of margin that lets people build savings. On the category level, Utilities (index 103) is where the real savings show up, while Housing (index 130) is the line item most likely to surprise newcomers. Income at $137,511 and homes at $440,419 round out a profile that ranks #3 for clear reasons.

Dive into Allen's numbers: cost index 109 (3 points below national average), rent $1,634/month, income $129,130, and a home price of $497,016. The city's cost profile isn't flat — Utilities is the cheapest category at 100, while Housing runs 122. With 111,620 residents, it balances mid-size city convenience with manageable costs (though the trend is moving in the right direction).

A closer look at League: the cost index of 105 — for better or worse — breaks down to a Utilities index of 97 (strongest category) and a Housing index of 113 (weakest). That's more or less in line with the region. Median rent is $1,764/month — 7% below the national median — while household income sits at $119,870, meaning locals spend about 18% of income on rent. That's a healthy margin by any standard (and that gap widens if you factor in state taxes).