Burlington vs Fort Collins
Metro-area medians — Burlington-South Burlington, VT Metro Area vs Fort Collins-Loveland, CO Metro Area — not the cities proper.
Burlington comes out ahead, winning 5 of the 8 clearly-decided measures.
Burlington and Fort Collins cost about the same to live in, but Fort Collins households earn about 4% more. Adjusted for local prices, a typical paycheck stretches further in Fort Collins.
For your salary & household
Enter your pay and household size to see what it's really worth here — the numbers update live and the link stays shareable.
On $75,000 for just you, Fort Collins leaves you about $192/yr better off after tax and local prices.
Take-home estimates a single filer taking the standard deduction (2025 federal brackets, FICA, and state income tax) and isn't tax advice. “Real value” rebases take-home to average U.S. prices using the BEA cost-of-living index; the per-person figure uses the OECD square-root equivalence scale.
Choose Burlington for
- + Median rent
- + Median home value
- + Unemployment
- + Average commute
- + Air quality (median AQI)
Choose Fort Collins for
- + Cost-adjusted income (pay's real value)
- + Median household income
- + Bachelor's degree or higher
Burlington vs Fort Collins — frequently asked
- Is Burlington cheaper than Fort Collins?
- They are about even — the overall cost of living in the Burlington and Fort Collins metros is within 3% of each other (BEA Regional Price Parities), so neither is meaningfully cheaper.
- Which has higher household income, Burlington or Fort Collins?
- Fort Collins has the higher median household income — $93,276 versus $89,615 (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS), about 4% more.
- Does a paycheck go further in Burlington or Fort Collins?
- A paycheck stretches further in Fort Collins. Adjusted for local prices, the median income is worth $92,236 there versus $88,773 in Burlington.
- Which has cheaper rent, Burlington or Fort Collins?
- Burlington has cheaper rent — a median of $1,631/mo versus $1,751/mo (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS).