St. Louis vs Virginia Beach
Metro-area medians — St. Louis, MO-IL Metro Area vs Virginia Beach-Chesapeake-Norfolk, VA-NC Metro Area — not the cities proper.
St. Louis comes out ahead, winning 6 of the 7 clearly-decided measures.
St. Louis costs about 3% less to live in, and household incomes are similar. Adjusted for local prices, a typical paycheck stretches about as far in either.
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, St. Louis leaves you about $2,776/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 St. Louis for
- + Livability (CityLedger)
- + Cost of living (price level, US = 100)
- + Median rent
- + Median home value
- + Unemployment
- + Bachelor's degree or higher
St. Louis vs Virginia Beach — frequently asked
- Is St. Louis cheaper than Virginia Beach?
- St. Louis is cheaper: its overall cost of living runs about 3% below Virginia Beach's (BEA Regional Price Parities).
- Which has higher household income, St. Louis or Virginia Beach?
- Household incomes are similar — $81,679 in the St. Louis metro versus $82,402 in Virginia Beach (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS).
- Does a paycheck go further in St. Louis or Virginia Beach?
- It is roughly a wash. After adjusting income for local prices, a typical paycheck is worth about the same in both metros ($85,898 versus $84,134).
- Which has cheaper rent, St. Louis or Virginia Beach?
- St. Louis has cheaper rent — a median of $1,154/mo versus $1,556/mo (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS).