2025 Compare Cities Cost of Living:
Columbia, MD vs Santee, CA

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Highlights
Is it cheaper to live in Santee or is it cheaper to live in Columbia?
- Santee is 21.1% more expensive than Columbia.

Which city has more affordable housing, Santee or Columbia?
- Santee housing costs are 63.8% more expensive than Columbia housing costs.

Is Health Care more affordable in Columbia or is Health Care more affordable in Santee.
- Health related expenses are 2.9% more in Santee.
 Columbia, MDSantee, CAUnited States
 Overall  Unlock154.9100
 Food & Groceries104.5  Unlock100
 Health  Unlock89.0100
 Housing142.9  Unlock100
 Median Home Cost  Unlock$671,700$338,100
 Utilities110  Unlock100
 Transportation  Unlock123.5100
 Miscellaneous151.6  Unlock100
100 = National Average (Below 100 means cheaper than the US average. Above 100 means more expensive.)
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Reviews for Columbia    28 Reviews

Over 5 years ago

Lived here for a while, beautiful opportunities, pays well, overall nice  More

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Been here 30 years was great at first but once they added a transit bus from baltimore to columbia 15-18 years ago that was the beginning of the end. And about 5 years  More

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Columbia can be described in one word: unequal. The neighborhood I live in, River Hill, is jam-packed with almost million-dollar homes, while the neighborhoods of Long  More

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Reviews for Santee    10 Reviews

Over 13 years ago

I have lived in Santee for 36 years and the changes have been extensive. Traffic has been, and still is, a big problem. However, that's a problem in most CA towns and  More

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Over 13 years ago

San Diego in general is a very expensive place to live. Santee is less so but compared to the rest of the country we are way over  More

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Over 17 years ago

Santee has a great quality of life,low crime, good schools(some of the best schools east county has to offer), fairly short commute time, as it is fairly well central in  More

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