2025 Compare Cities Cost of Living:
Fairfax, VA vs South Lake Tahoe, CA

Change Cities
Highlights
Is it cheaper to live in South Lake Tahoe or is it cheaper to live in Fairfax?
- South Lake Tahoe is 0.9% more expensive than Fairfax.

Which city has more affordable housing, South Lake Tahoe or Fairfax?
- South Lake Tahoe housing costs are 5.4% less expensive than Fairfax housing costs.

Is Health Care more affordable in Fairfax or is Health Care more affordable in South Lake Tahoe.
- Health related expenses are 25.6% more in South Lake Tahoe.
 Fairfax, VASouth Lake Tahoe, CAUnited States
 Overall  Unlock143.7100
 Food & Groceries114.1  Unlock100
 Health  Unlock129.0100
 Housing223.8  Unlock100
 Median Home Cost  Unlock$657,600$338,100
 Utilities97  Unlock100
 Transportation  Unlock102.6100
 Miscellaneous145.6  Unlock100
100 = National Average (Below 100 means cheaper than the US average. Above 100 means more expensive.)
DID YOU KNOW?

In order to keep your same standard of living your salary can vary greatly - whether you buy or rent, require child care, or want to include taxes. This is why we are now offering a Premium Salary & Cost of Living Calculator.

Our Premium Calculator Includes:
- Compare Cities cost of living across 9 different categories
- Personal salary calculations can optionally include Home ownership or rental, Child care, and Taxes (with details on state and local sales, income, property and automobile taxes)
- Includes the cost of Child Care for toddlers or infants, at a day care center or home care
- Grocery prices, detailed for 29 staple items in six categories
- Difference in cost of Utilities, including electric, gas and fuel oil
- Health Care Premiums and hospital expenses for major surgeries
- Taxes, Fees and Expenses you should know about, such as local car insurance rates, automobile taxes and registration, commuting costs.
- and 100s of other items you should consider before you relocate

Upgrade to Premium | See Example

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

   |    Reply

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

   |    Reply

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

   |    Reply

Start Your Review of Fairfax

Reviews for South Lake Tahoe    10 Reviews

Over 5 years ago

Pretty boring town. Very run down and seedy too. Lake is nothing special either. I much prefer the Pacific coast or even the Atlantic coast or great  More

   |    Reply

Seriously I don't get what the big deal about this dump is everything is grossly overpriced scenery is boring and not at all interesting very boring nothing to do very  More

   |    Reply

Over 5 years ago

Beautiful place to live. This site has most of the details wrong, has somehow lumped it together with Sacramento. Elevation is 6250 feet at the lake. Weather is cold in  More

   |    Reply

Start Your Review of South Lake Tahoe


Premium Subscription
Includes Cost of Living compares for child care, utilities, transportation, health, taxes, housing for home owners vs renters, weather, insurance premiums and so much more.


The premier source for comprehensive city data for over 30 years.

© Best Places. All rights reserved.