Cost of Living: El Paso vs Colorado Springs (2026)

Dive into El Paso's numbers: cost index 84 (27 points below national average), rent $1,441/month, income $58,734, and a home price of $231,886. The city's cost profile isn't flat — Housing is the cheapest category at 84, while Healthcare runs 97. As a major city with 678,958 residents, amenities and job markets are robust.

This looks affordable — until you factor in healthcare. In El Paso, the healthcare index sits at 97 — not a dealbreaker, but worth knowing about. Worth a deeper look.

Now, the part that complicates the narrative: Nationally, the 288 cities in our database average a cost index of 111 — for better or worse — , rent of $1,895/month, and household income of $80,367. The cities in this ranking significantly outperform those benchmarks. That's a strong position by any measure.

(Tangentially — this is the kind of city where you can actually build equity on a median salary, which is increasingly rare.)

Bottom line: El Paso, TX leads this ranking for clear, data-backed reasons — but the "best" city depends on your priorities. And generally speaking, click into any city below to see the full detail page with 12-month trend charts, profession-specific salary data, and a breakdown of all five cost categories. If you're seriously considering a move, use our salary calculator to model your specific income against these numbers (which, to be fair, is a metric that favors smaller cities).