Cost of Living in Charlotte: A Guide for Homebuyers

Published on January 31st, 2024
10 min read

Joseph Gordon Associate Editor
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Joseph Gordon is an Associate Editor with HomeLight. He has seven years of experience reporting on the commercial real estate and insurance industries. He holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of San Francisco.

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If you’re considering moving to Charlotte, understanding the cost of living in Queen City can help you make plans more confidently.

In this guide, we break down the cost of living in Charlotte, from housing expenses to food and healthcare costs. We’ll provide data from the local cost of living index and comparison tools and look at how Charlotte ranks for livability compared to other U.S. cities.

We’ll also share a handy set of additional online resources to measure and compare the cost of living and expenses in other North Carolina cities.

What makes up the ‘cost of living’ in Charlotte?

When you’re planning to live in a new city, the cost of living there will be a combination of expenses required to maintain your desired lifestyle. Cambridge Dictionary defines cost of living as “the amount of money people need to spend to buy basic goods or services such as food, clothes, and a place to live.”

This overall cost can vary significantly based on location, even within North Carolina. But the living expenses you’ll pay for typically include the following categories:

Housing (mortgage/rent)
Energy (utility costs)
Food (groceries)
Transportation (vehicle or transit systems)
Healthcare (doctors, hospitals, dentists, etc.)

However, the costs often extend beyond these basics to cover other expenses, such as:

Clothing
Education
Childcare
Entertainment

These elements, when combined, establish the core costs associated with a particular way of living. However, the standard of living you achieve is largely influenced by your income and debts and how the dollar amounts compare to the costs of basic needs in your location or, in this case, the Charlotte community where you might want to live.

Let’s take a quick look at some ways you can compare your current living cost with what you might experience if you move to Charlotte.

What’s a Charlotte cost of living index (CLI)?

A cost of living index (CLI) monitors how much these basic expenses increase over time in different states, cities, or regions. They provide a way to compare the price of maintaining a particular standard of living.

The CLI for a city like Charlotte is calculated by assessing the price of essential goods and services in different areas, such as housing, food, transportation, and healthcare.

A local index is typically standardized, with a base city assigned a baseline index value (usually set at 100). Other cities are then compared against this benchmark. For example, a North Carolina community with a CLI of 125 would signify that living there is 25% more expensive than the base location, while an index of 75 indicates it’s 25% less expensive.

A cost of living index will typically break down and score each basic expense by category. Here are separate scores for Charlotte from the BestPlaces Charlotte Cost of Living Index:

Overall CLI score: 99.7
Housing: 99
Healthcare: 95.0
Transportation: 97.7
Misc. goods and services: 99.4
Grocery items: 99.2
Utilities: 98.3

Data source used: C2ER Council for Economic and Social Research

According to BestPlaces, Charlotte, North Carolina’s total cost of housing, food, child care, transportation, health care, taxes, and other necessities is 2.5 percent higher than the U.S. average and 12.6 percent higher than the average for North Carolina.

Cost perspective

While Charlotte’s overall cost of living is 2.5 points higher than the baseline established for the cities included in the BestPlaces index, it’s well below the costs to live in Chapel Hill, which — with a CLI score of 116.0) is 16.0 points higher than the base of other scored communities.

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Additional cost of living data for Charlotte

Now let’s look at some real-world dollar amounts collected by various cost of living sources. Here’s more of what you can expect if you move to Charlotte.

Expatistan, a cost-of-living data site, provides these monthly cost estimates for Charlotte:

Family of four estimated monthly costs: $4,985
Single-person estimated monthly costs: $2,714

Best Places lists these housing estimates on their Charlotte cost of living pages:

Charlotte housing data

Number of homes	374,123
Median home age	29 years
Median home cost	$381,800
Home appreciation rate (last 12 months)	23.6%
Home appreciation rate (last 5 years)	81.4%
Home appreciation rate (last 10 years)	163.7%
Property tax rate (per $1,000 of value)	$9.28
Property taxes paid (average home)	$2,394
Homes owned	48.8%
Housing vacant	7.5%
Homes rented	43.7%

Source: BestPlaces.com

Charlotte tax rates

State individual income tax rate: 4.75%
State sales tax rate: 4.75%
Charlotte sales tax rate: 2.75%
Effective property tax rate (percentage of home value): 0.80%

How does Charlotte rank for livability?

According to the AARP Livability Index, Charlotte has an above-average quality of life score of 54.

The index then provides an overall score between 0-100 (higher is better), based on rankings from seven categories:

Overall Livability Score: 54
Housing (affordability and access): 46
Neighborhood (proximity and security): 54
Transportation (safety and convenience): 56
Environment (clean air and water): 54
Health (prevention, access, and quality): 50
Engagement (civic and social involvement): 71
Opportunity (inclusion and possibilities): 46

For perspective, the highest-ranked city scores in each category were:

Very Large: San Francisco, 66
Large: Madison, Wisconsin, 67
Mid-size: Portland Main, 68
Small: Aspen, Colorado, 73

No city earned a perfect score of 100. You can learn more about this livability index on AARP’s methodology page.

Check your current city’s livability score

AARP provides a Livability Index Search Page where it scores communities and even neighborhoods across the country for services and amenities that impact your life. You can check your current city score or others where you might like to live near Charlotte. The livability index Community Finder tool allows you to filter by location, community size, livability measures, and other features, such as state and local plans to create age-friendly communities.

Additional cost of living indexes

Here are some cost of living index links to research additional North Carolina living expenses:

Statista: Provides free access to many basic statistics. Paid subscriptions are available for more detailed information about North Carolina communities.
ACCRA (C2ER): Maintained by the Council for Community and Economic Research. This is a paid service that maintains one of the largest databases of cost-of-living metrics for Charlotte and other North Carolina cities.
World Population Review CLI page: This website provides a free search-by-state tool at the bottom of its Cost of Living Index page.
Numbeo: This crowd-sourced CLI promotes itself as “the world’s largest database of user-contributed data about cities and countries worldwide.” This service can show you user-provided insights such as the cost of an inexpensive restaurant in Charlotte or the perceived presence of crime in different parts of North Carolina. It’s free for personal use.

Why are people moving to (or from) North Carolina?

According to the United Van Lines 47th Annual Movers Study that tracks migrations within the United States, here are the reasons people are moving into North Carolina, or moving away to other states.

Primary reasons people are moving

Inbound	Reason for the move	Outbound
19.70%	Retirement	7.80%
5.20%	Health	3.20%
27.20%	Family	32.40%
10.10%	Lifestyle	9.30%
24.80%	Job	33.10%
3.40%	Cost	0.40%

Total inbound: 60.1%

Total outbound: 39.9%

Property insurance

As property insurance rates continue to skyrocket in states prone to environmental catastrophes like hurricanes, such as southern states like Florida and North Carolina, it’s important to get a good handle on what you might be in for in terms of homeowner insurance rates when considering moving to one of these locations.

According to survey data from HomeLight’s 2023 Top Agent Insights report, 25% of agents nationwide have said they saw an increase in home sale cancellations due to rising or unexpected insurance costs.

According to Insurance.com, as of Jan. 2024, the average cost of homeowner’s insurance in North Carolina is $2,727 a year, or $227 a month.

Budgeting for your move to Charlotte

Below is a collection of handy online tools you can use to help estimate your moving costs and living expenses in Charlotte — from how much you’ll need to pay a mover to how much your current home might sell for and the proceeds you can expect.

1. Online move cost estimators

With today’s smart technology, you can find a wide variety of tools to help you estimate the cost of paying for a mover, or how to find a trusted mover for your relocation to Charlotte. Some examples include:

2. Cost of living calculators

Cost of living calculators are different from cost of living indexes. These tools, which are typically free, provide a comparison based on income and regional costs for housing, transportation, food, healthcare, and other basic necessities in the two locations you select.

For example, if you live in Denver, you can view a side-by-side cost comparison with Charlotte expenses — or other nearby North Carolina cities. Some popular cost-of-living calculators include:

3. Living wage and budget calculators

Living Wage Calculator: Designed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), this calculator can help you estimate the local wage rate that you’ll need as a full-time Charlotte worker in order to cover the costs of your family’s basic living expenses.
Family Budget Calculator: This tool, provided by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), estimates the income your family will need to attain a modest — yet adequate — standard of living in your new Charlotte community. Choose from 10 family types.

4. Homebuyer calculators

Home Affordability Calculator: Understand the costs associated with buying a home in Charlotte and find out how much home you can afford before you start shopping or planning a move.
Down Payment Calculator: Estimate how much you might need to put down on a home in Charlotte and learn more about the loan options that work best for you.
Closing Costs Calculator: Find out how much cash you’ll need for closing costs on a Charlotte house, including estimated lender and third-party fees.

5. Home seller calculators

Home Value Estimator: Get a preliminary estimate of what your current home is worth, along with options to help you get the best price when you’re ready to sell.
Best Time to Sell Calculator: Use this calculator that incorporates nationwide real estate transaction data to help time your move.
Agent Commissions Calculator: Learn how much you might pay in real estate agent commissions when selling a house in your current market.
Net Proceeds Calculator: Get a ballpark idea of the net proceeds you could earn from the sale of your existing home.

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Selling your current home and buying in Charlotte

To make your move smoother and less stressful, modern real estate solution companies like HomeLight have created innovative programs to help you buy a house before you sell your old one.

Watch the short video below to learn about HomeLight’s Buy Before You Sell program that lets you move into your new Charlotte home now and sell your current house with peace of mind and on your timeline.

Partner with a professional to find your new Charlotte home

As you plan your move, HomeLight can connect you with a top-performing, trusted real estate agent in your current city or in the Charlotte community where you’d like to live. We analyze over 27 million transactions and thousands of reviews to determine which agent is best for you based on your needs.

For the best of both worlds — coming and going — ask your agent about HomeLight’s Buy Before You Sell program to help take the uncertainty out of your Charlotte home purchase.

Header Source: (Zac Gudakov / Unsplash)

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Joseph Gordon

Associate Editor

Joseph Gordon is an Associate Editor with HomeLight. He has seven years of experience reporting on the commercial real estate and insurance industries. He holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of San Francisco.