Ann Arbor vs Fort Collins
Metro-area medians — Ann Arbor, MI Metro Area vs Fort Collins-Loveland, CO Metro Area — not the cities proper.
Ann Arbor comes out ahead, winning 4 of the 6 clearly-decided measures.
Ann Arbor and Fort Collins cost about the same to live in, but Fort Collins households earn about 3% more. 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, Fort Collins leaves you about $433/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
- + Median rent
- + Median home value
- + Bachelor's degree or higher
- + Air quality (median AQI)
Choose Fort Collins for
- + Livability (CityLedger)
- + Median household income
Ann Arbor vs Fort Collins — frequently asked
- Is Ann Arbor cheaper than Fort Collins?
- They are about even — the overall cost of living in the Ann Arbor and Fort Collins metros is within 3% of each other (BEA Regional Price Parities), so neither is meaningfully cheaper.
- Which has higher household income, Ann Arbor or Fort Collins?
- Fort Collins has the higher median household income — $93,276 versus $90,523 (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS), about 3% more.
- Does a paycheck go further in Ann Arbor or Fort Collins?
- It is roughly a wash. After adjusting income for local prices, a typical paycheck is worth about the same in both metros ($89,733 versus $92,236).
- Which has cheaper rent, Ann Arbor or Fort Collins?
- Ann Arbor has cheaper rent — a median of $1,554/mo versus $1,751/mo (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS).