West Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale Make Cut of Most Overpriced City

If you need affirmation that West Palm Beach is too rich rich for your blood, Forbes has you covered. Using a semiscientific method that accounted for things like housing affordability, the cost-of-living index, and median salaries for college grads, the magazine produced a list of the most overpriced cities in the U.S. The Sunshine...

By Chris Sweeney

February 2, 2012

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If you need affirmation that West Palm Beach is too rich rich for your blood, Forbes has you covered.

Using a semiscientific method that accounted for things like housing affordability, the cost-of-living index, and median salaries for college grads, the magazine produced a list of the most overpriced cities in the U.S.

The Sunshine State grabbed four spots on the list, with West Palm Beach coming in sixth and Fort Lauderdale taking the 17th spot.

Perhaps most surprising is that Providence, Rhode Island, beat out West Palm Beach for the fifth spot.

Other Florida cities include Miami, which ranked third, and Bradenton, which tied with San Jose, California, for the eighth spot.

According to the data presented in the slide show, the cost-of-living index in West Palm was a whopping 112, while the average college grad makes only $54,700.

College grads in Fort Lauderdale have the same salary as those in West Palm, but they have to deal with a cost-of-living index of "only" 108. Phew.

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