Southern metro areas dominate the rankings of the most affordable places for a baby's 1st year
Ben Price, a Redfin agent in Birmingham, moved to Alabama’s largest city from Chicago partly because it's a more affordable place to raise children.
"With three active kids in the Chicago suburbs, my wife and I found that we were always behind, both in time and finances. The cost of living with three children was too much to handle," Price said."At first, my wife was reluctant to consider moving to a more affordable area, but then I showed her homes for sale in Birmingham. When she saw how much more house we could afford there without sacrificing in terms of school ratings, she was in.
In Birmingham, just $1,378, or 8.4% of the total cost of a baby's first year, represents the annual difference in mortgage payments between a typical two-bedroom home and a three-bedroom home, while $5,858 is the cost of child care. And in D.C., the upgrade from two to three bedrooms accounts for just $2,204, or 9.3% of the total cost of a baby's first year, with child care coming in at an average of $23,666 per year.
"The most costly part of adding to your family is the time put into taking care of a new baby, whether it's you or your child-care provider," said Redfin chief economist Daryl Fairweather."If you decide to stay at home to take care of your baby, you may have to forgo income and pause your career progression. If you hire a nanny, you will need to pay them a competitive wage.
Because child care makes up such a significant portion of the cost of a baby's first year, the places with the most expensive child care are the ones where it costs the most to raise a baby. For instance, Washington, D.C., where a baby's first year is most expensive, is the most costly metro in the country for child care, and Birmingham is the least expensive for both.
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