Durham vs Fort Collins
Metro-area medians — Durham-Chapel Hill, NC Metro Area vs Fort Collins-Loveland, CO Metro Area — not the cities proper.
Durham comes out ahead, winning 5 of the 8 clearly-decided measures.
Durham is about 4% cheaper to live in, while Fort Collins households earn about 12% 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, Durham leaves you about $2,076/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 Durham for
- + Cost of living (price level, US = 100)
- + Median rent
- + Median home value
- + Unemployment
- + Air quality (median AQI)
Choose Fort Collins for
- + Livability (CityLedger)
- + Cost-adjusted income (pay's real value)
- + Median household income
Durham vs Fort Collins — frequently asked
- Is Durham cheaper than Fort Collins?
- Durham is cheaper: its overall cost of living runs about 4% below Fort Collins's (BEA Regional Price Parities).
- Which has higher household income, Durham or Fort Collins?
- Fort Collins has the higher median household income — $93,276 versus $83,542 (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS), about 12% more.
- Does a paycheck go further in Durham or Fort Collins?
- A paycheck stretches further in Fort Collins. Adjusted for local prices, the median income is worth $92,236 there versus $85,621 in Durham.
- Which has cheaper rent, Durham or Fort Collins?
- Durham has cheaper rent — a median of $1,598/mo versus $1,751/mo (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS).