2025 Compare Cities Cost of Living:
Long Beach, CA vs Santa Cruz, CA

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Highlights
Is it cheaper to live in Santa Cruz or is it cheaper to live in Long Beach?
- Santa Cruz is 15.0% more expensive than Long Beach.

Which city has more affordable housing, Santa Cruz or Long Beach?
- Santa Cruz housing costs are 65.6% more expensive than Long Beach housing costs.

Is Health Care more affordable in Long Beach or is Health Care more affordable in Santa Cruz.
- Health related expenses are 26.0% more in Santa Cruz.
 Long Beach, CASanta Cruz, CAUnited States
 Overall  Unlock186.0100
 Food & Groceries101.9  Unlock100
 Health  Unlock109.2100
 Housing254.0  Unlock100
 Median Home Cost  Unlock$1,270,800$338,100
 Utilities97  Unlock100
 Transportation  Unlock110.5100
 Miscellaneous133.4  Unlock100
100 = National Average (Below 100 means cheaper than the US average. Above 100 means more expensive.)
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Reviews for Long Beach    45 Reviews

Local born and bred. This place is going down the drain. Crime is up, housing is up, yuppies finding nothing wrong with it since they want to validate spending 3k on a 2  More

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Angelique · 
Over 5 years ago

I love Long Beach. I especially shoreline village and the aquarium of the pacific. The only big problem here (for me) is crime. Otherwise, nice  More

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Over 7 years ago

The cost of living is extremely high and there are way too many apartments or multi unit homes which have no parking. But with everyone living on top of each other it  More

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Reviews for Santa Cruz    44 Reviews

I lived in the Santa Cruz area for 20 years. UCSC alum. Our kids were born there. There are wonderful things about Santa Cruz, but also many serious problems that we  More

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Over 5 years ago

I have been here for four generations! My kids are the fifth. I guess that should tell you how wonderful it is here, at least for us. It's so cool to have world class  More

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I was born over the hill in San Jose area, and as a kid I loved coming over to the boardwalk. Santa Cruz has always been and always will be a town of diversity,  More

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