One of America’s Least Affordable Cities is in Illinois and it’s Not Chicago

When you think of expensive cities to live in you'd probably consider metropolitan areas that have millions of people.

Apparently, that's not the case according to a recent study by Good Hire.

The background checking company decided to take a look at 2022's Most Affordable Places to Live & Work in the US and the list is kind of a surprise.

The least affordable city to live in America is Los Angeles. Makes sense, big city big bucks. New York City is also in the top ten, ranked 8th overall.

As far as Illinois cities on the list, Chicago did not make the top ten but surprisingly Rockford was listed as the 9th least affordable city in America.

That's right, New York City is slightly less affordable than Rockford.

GoodHire analyzed seven key factors from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Census Bureau, Bureau of Economic Analysis, and U.S. Department of Commerce. These factors make up a formula to determine the most affordable places to live and work in 2022. The factors include: wage growth, unemployment rate, job growth, percentage of jobs open, renter affordability, homeowner affordability, and real per capita personal income.

When you cobble all those together, I guess it's easier to see why Rockford would be classified as unaffordable. Still kind of a stretch but that's fine.

I live in the Rockford area and have visited New York City numerous times. Not once did I think "prices here are similar to Rockford."

On the other hand, one of the most affordable cities in America is not far from Rockford.

Just north, about 60 miles from The Forest City, Madison ranked as the 4th most affordable city in America.