This may come as a surprise to some, but not to me.

Through my US travels, I’ve always thought of Philadelphia as a very affordable place to live for what it has to offer its residents. Please bear in mind that I’m comparing Philadelphia to our local competition: Boston, New York, and Washington DC (although, DC was the only other city to rank better in this study; who knew).

I’m not going to compare Philadelphia to cities like Indianapolis or Cincinnati. They’re great cities, but very different from the Northeastern US and both have completely different locations/offerings. My reasoning, I’m trying to do an apples-to-apples comparison; not apples-to-oranges (as the saying goes).

All of The Big 4 cities offer similar things such as large historical metropolises, dense populations, thriving downtowns and/or central cores, convenient locations, and similar climates. Plus, they all have easy access to mountains, rivers, lakes, beaches, the Atlantic Ocean, and each other. Hence, they are easy to compare and contrast in a general sense.

When you look at these 4 cities side-by-side, Philadelphia has a lot to offer at an affordable price. This is a great article that talks in further detail about why Philly ranked 2nd.

Check it out when you have time.