2025 Compare Cities Cost of Living:
Charleston, SC vs Fairfax, VA

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Highlights
Is it cheaper to live in Fairfax or is it cheaper to live in Charleston?
- Fairfax is 27.1% more expensive than Charleston.

Which city has more affordable housing, Fairfax or Charleston?
- Fairfax housing costs are 68.9% more expensive than Charleston housing costs.

Is Health Care more affordable in Charleston or is Health Care more affordable in Fairfax.
- Health related expenses are 6.4% more in Fairfax.
 Charleston, SCFairfax, VAUnited States
 Overall  Unlock142.4100
 Food & Groceries105.6  Unlock100
 Health  Unlock102.7100
 Housing132.5  Unlock100
 Median Home Cost  Unlock$654,200$338,100
 Utilities102  Unlock100
 Transportation  Unlock127.6100
 Miscellaneous93.7  Unlock100
100 = National Average (Below 100 means cheaper than the US average. Above 100 means more expensive.)
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Reviews for Charleston    76 Reviews

Over 2 years ago

Charleston is beautiful and unique and incredibly special. If you don't believe me, just ask Anthony Bourdain in his Parts Unknown episode - and he was an insightful  More

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Serious lack of health care and "good old boys club" whereby doctors will not even see the patient but diagnose them based on referring doctor. My sister died there for  More

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Over 5 years ago

Boy, has this once beautiful town changed...for the worse! I initially moved here 20 years ago because the people were so nice, no traffic, great choice of hospitals,  More

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Reviews for Fairfax    28 Reviews

I lived in the area for 17 years through high school until I eventually became a truck driver. Having now seen most states extensively, I wanted to fairly review what  More

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Living in Fairfax, or any of the Northern Virginia suburbs of DC, means dealing with highways that are a Gordian knot of converging lanes and overpasses, making long  More

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Over 10 years ago

The Cost of living here is high. Though the standard of living is also high, unless you're making over 50,000/year, it's difficult to both live and build any sort of  More

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