AL metros
Cost of living across major AL metropolitan areas.
What living in AL costs
Across the 6 AL metros we track, the typical cost-of-living index is 91.8 against a national metro median of 95.7 — about 4% cheaper than the typical US metro. That ranks AL 13 of the 48 states we cover, counting from the cheapest.
The state is not uniform: Mobile, AL is the cheapest metro at 88.7, while Daphne, AL runs 94.2 — a spread of 6% between them.
A typical AL home costs $262,556, or about 3.8× median household income, and typical rent is $1,448/mo.
Taxes in AL
AL levies a state income tax on top of the federal one. Effective property tax runs about 0.4% of home value in a typical AL metro, and combined state and local sales tax is around 9.3%.
Property tax is the one that scales with housing, so it bites hardest in the pricier metros above. Per-metro figures are on each metro page.
| Metro | COL index | Median home | Median rent |
|---|---|---|---|
| Birmingham, AL | 91.8 | $262,556 | $1,448 |
| Huntsville, AL | 93.8 | $316,645 | $1,385 |
| Mobile, AL | 88.7 | $197,857 | $1,323 |
| Montgomery, AL | 89.9 | $214,099 | $1,402 |
| Tuscaloosa, AL | 89.1 | $223,201 | $1,485 |
| Daphne, AL | 94.2 | $373,114 | $1,663 |
Cities & towns in AL (40)
Local property tax, home values and school scores for each place.