The Twin Cities may not be the most expensive area to live in Minnesota. Or at least, that’s according to recent data looking at the cost of necessities like housing and childcare.
The Economic Policy Institute published its new Family Budget Calculator this month. According to the calculator — which looks at factors including housing, food, childcare, transportation, health care and taxes — a family of two adults and two children would need to make $138,018 in the Rochester metro area to live a “modest but adequate lifestyle.”
This is based on the average cost in Olmsted County and part of Dodge County. The average cost of living across the seven-county Minneapolis-St Paul metro area is $134,789.
The primary factor driving up that number in the Rochester area was healthcare, costing an estimated $22,130 annually compared to $14,100 annually in the Twin Cities…