Ann Arbor vs Durham
Metro-area medians — Ann Arbor, MI Metro Area vs Durham-Chapel Hill, NC Metro Area — not the cities proper.
Ann Arbor comes out ahead, winning 5 of the 7 clearly-decided measures.
Durham is about 3% cheaper to live in, while Ann Arbor households earn about 8% more. Adjusted for local prices, a typical paycheck stretches further in Ann Arbor.
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 $2,509/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 Ann Arbor for
- + Cost-adjusted income (pay's real value)
- + Median household income
- + Median home value
- + Bachelor's degree or higher
- + Air quality (median AQI)
Ann Arbor vs Durham — frequently asked
- Is Ann Arbor cheaper than Durham?
- Durham is cheaper: its overall cost of living runs about 3% below Ann Arbor's (BEA Regional Price Parities).
- Which has higher household income, Ann Arbor or Durham?
- Ann Arbor has the higher median household income — $90,523 versus $83,542 (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS), about 8% more.
- Does a paycheck go further in Ann Arbor or Durham?
- A paycheck stretches further in Ann Arbor. Adjusted for local prices, the median income is worth $89,733 there versus $85,621 in Durham.
- Which has cheaper rent, Ann Arbor or Durham?
- Ann Arbor has cheaper rent — a median of $1,554/mo versus $1,598/mo (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS).