Modesto vs Yuba City
Metro-area medians — Modesto, CA Metro Area vs Yuba City, CA Metro Area — not the cities proper.
Yuba City comes out ahead, winning 7 of the 7 clearly-decided measures.
Modesto and Yuba City cost about the same to live in, but Yuba City 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, Modesto leaves you about $67/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 Yuba City for
- + Livability (CityLedger)
- + Median household income
- + Median rent
- + Median home value
- + Unemployment
- + Bachelor's degree or higher
- + Air quality (median AQI)
Modesto vs Yuba City — frequently asked
- Is Modesto cheaper than Yuba City?
- They are about even — the overall cost of living in the Modesto and Yuba City metros is within 3% of each other (BEA Regional Price Parities), so neither is meaningfully cheaper.
- Which has higher household income, Modesto or Yuba City?
- Yuba City has the higher median household income — $81,094 versus $78,673 (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS), about 3% more.
- Does a paycheck go further in Modesto or Yuba City?
- It is roughly a wash. After adjusting income for local prices, a typical paycheck is worth about the same in both metros ($75,569 versus $77,801).
- Which has cheaper rent, Modesto or Yuba City?
- Yuba City has cheaper rent — a median of $1,486/mo versus $1,753/mo (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS).