Cost of Living Comparison

(Information supplied on this topic is from experience only, and in no way reflects policies, regulations, or laws from either Canada, USA, Manitoba, or Minnesota)

General:
Out of all the e-mails and comments sent to me, there is a theme that seems to come up. Minneapolis has this, Winnipeg has that, Minneapolis has better this than Winnipeg. Nobody can produce a 100% accurate comparison between the two cities. Most comparisons between Winnipeg and Minneapolis are incorrectly compiled. Minneapolis itself is comprised of the downtown portion of the Twin Cities and a small residential area. Unlike Winnipeg, the suburbs of Minneapolis (I believe there are over 60 of them!) are not actually part of Minneapolis - they are their own cities. Most people who move from Winnipeg do not move to the city of Minneapolis. They move to Eden Prairie, Bloomington, Burnsville, Chanhassen, Apple Valley - well, you get the picture! You live in the suburbs, which are their own city.

Income Taxes: Added: (03/31/99)
One of the most asked questions lately is How much income taxes will I lose off of my paycheque? Like in Canada, this will vary. I can promise you it will be less that any province that you are living in now. Check out these two WEB sites for detailed income tax calculations. In addition, for the State of Minnesota, there is a social security tax of approximately 6% and Medicare approximately 1.5%.

Cost of Living:
We are going to base our cost of living sample on a 50,000 Canadian Dollar salary. What this means is that if the chart says when having $50,000 to spend in Winnipeg, and you need $55,337 in Minneapolis - you actually need about $36,168 USD$. We will show this "converted to CDN$ amount" as a separate column. We are using an exchange rate of $1.00USD = $1.53CDN$. A cost of living comparison basically asks the question, "If I had a salary, before taxes, of $50,000 CDN, what equivalent salary, before taxes, would I need in my destination city to live with same lifestyle?". This calculation tries to consider an average persons needs, average family size, and a normal taxation situation. Information compiled here was generated from the HomeFair.Com web site.

How can you use this information to help you determine if you should move? If in Winnipeg, you had a salaried position that paid $50,000 CDN$, and you were offered (for example), $60,000 USD$ for that same position, your standard of living will almost double if you were to move to Bloomington. From this chart, you can also determine that it costs about the same to own a house in Bloomington as in Eden Prairie - but renting in Eden Prairie is quite expensive. You can also interpret this to mean that Eden Prairie is a very desirable place to live - it is! But this does not always hold true - there are many undesirable places to live in the city of Minneapolis - yet is shows a high salary is needed to maintain the same standard of living.

Moving from Canada to (Destination City or Suburb)	Own House			Renting
Moving from Canada to (Destination City or Suburb)	Salary in Winnipeg CDN$	Salary Needed in Destination CDN$	Salary Needed in Destination USD$	Salary in Winnipeg CDN$	Salary Needed in Destination CDN$	Salary Needed in Destination USD$
Bloomington	50,000	57,401	37,322	50,000	55,971	36,582
Brooklyn Park	50,000	58,736	38,389	50,000	52,605	34,382
Burnsville	50,000	55,276	36,128	50,000	55,304	36,146
Coon Rapids	50,000	53,840	35,190	50,000	54,807	35,821
Eagan	50,000	55,337	36,168	50,000	55,555	36,310
Eden Prairie	50,000	57,939	37,868	50,000	60,099	39,280
Edina	50,000	59,184	38,682	50,000	59,077	38,612
Maple Grove	50,000	58,197	38,037	50,000	60,350	39,444
Minneapolis	50,000	63,115	41,251	50,000	56,620	37,007
Minnetonka	50,000	58,354	38,139	50,000	57,812	37,786
Plymouth	50,000	58,635	38,323	50,000	56,287	36,789
Roseville	50,000	53,094	34,702	50,000	54,814	35,826
St. Paul	50,000	56,150	36,699	50,000	55,404	36,211

Desirable places to live shown in BOLD RED. (which have the higher needed salary!)