2025 Compare Cities Cost of Living:
Merced, CA vs Fairfax, VA

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Highlights
Is it cheaper to live in Fairfax or is it cheaper to live in Merced?
- Fairfax is 30.5% more expensive than Merced.

Which city has more affordable housing, Fairfax or Merced?
- Fairfax housing costs are 102.9% more expensive than Merced housing costs.

Is Health Care more affordable in Merced or is Health Care more affordable in Fairfax.
- Health related expenses are 15.3% less in Fairfax.
 Merced, CAFairfax, VAUnited States
 Overall  Unlock142.4100
 Food & Groceries99.5  Unlock100
 Health  Unlock102.7100
 Housing110.3  Unlock100
 Median Home Cost  Unlock$654,200$338,100
 Utilities110  Unlock100
 Transportation  Unlock127.6100
 Miscellaneous108.7  Unlock100
100 = National Average (Below 100 means cheaper than the US average. Above 100 means more expensive.)
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Reviews for Merced    44 Reviews

Merced is totally slept on - you want a little bit of everything CA has to offer, at a fraction of the price of other CA cities? Merced is the place to go. The town  More

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Over 5 years ago

Good place to live. More affordable than most of california. The city is growing and there is alot of business and growth here. Moved from the Bay area years ago and  More

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Great place to live. Lots of progress and changes coming to the city. Great place to raise a family. UC Merced is expanding and businesses are investing. Downtown is  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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