Forbes has published the list of most expensive cities in the world.
I was lucky to visit some of them but fortunately I don’t live in any of them.
According to Mercer’s 2008 Worldwide Cost of Living Survey, Moscow is the most expensive city in the world. It tops with a score of 142.4, up 6% from last year and 42% higher than New York – the most expensive city in US. Moscow is followed by Tokyo, London, Oslo, Norway and Seoul.
Mercer surveyed altogether 253 cities and measured cost of food, housing, transport, entertainment, etc. - altogether 200 different items. 74 billionaires live in Moscow, including Roman Abramovich, Oleg Deripaska and Vladimir Lisin whose fortunes are estimated to exceed $25 billion each. 13 of the Russian billionaires are under the age of 40. Ladies,…how about a trip to Russia?.
In US the first place belongs to New York and second to Los Angeles. Both of the cities however, dropped from top places in world ranking. Mitch Barnes from Mercer says: “The decline in the ranking of all U.S. cities is due to the weakening value of the U.S. dollar against most major world currencies. The dollar has been declining steadily for the past several years, which has resulted in an overall decrease in the cost of living in 19 US cities, relative to other major global cities studied.” According to Barnes it doesn’t have to be bad news. “The U.S. dollar’s loss of value may serve to attract globally mobile executives to business centers such as New York, Chicago and Los Angeles” – he says. “The difference in cost of living can be significant, particularly for those executives with families.”
I think it is still not too bad. In Tokyo a two bedroom luxury apartment costs over $5100 per month, about $600 more than you would pay in New York or Moscow. 