Georgia cities compared

Brunswick to Atlanta: $10,617 a year apart, same tax code

Georgia has 14 metropolitan areas with a published price index, and on $100,000 with a $400,000 home they are not interchangeable: $81,986 of purchasing power in Brunswick against $71,369 in Atlanta — $10,617 a year, 10.6% of the salary, without leaving the state.

That gap is unusually easy to trust, because the income tax is identical in every row. Federal $13,170, FICA $7,650, Georgia state income tax $4,391, and no county or city in Georgia levies its own. Two things move down this table and only two: what a house costs in property tax, and what everything costs at the till.

1 of the 14 price above the national average and 13 below it — inside one state, under one tax code. A single state-level cost of living number averages that away and tells you about none of them.

Property tax runs from 0.66% in Dalton to 1.26% in Albany — on a $400,000 home that is $2,656 against $5,027 a year, a difference of $2,371. Each rate is that area's counties averaged and weighted by how many homes are in each, because a house pays the tax and a rural county of a few thousand homes should not weigh the same as an urban one of several hundred thousand.

The 91 Georgia comparisons, resolved

Every pair of Georgia cities, each on its own page with the full working, the break-even salary and the property tax bill house by house. Ordered by the population that could plausibly be choosing between them:

Atlanta vs Augusta — Augusta by $6,860 a year. Price level 100.058 against 91.903; property tax 0.84% against 0.72%.

Atlanta vs Savannah — Savannah by $3,413 a year. Price level 100.058 against 95.206; property tax 0.84% against 0.90%.

Atlanta vs Columbus — Columbus by $8,893 a year. Price level 100.058 against 89.296; property tax 0.84% against 0.78%.

Atlanta vs Macon — Macon by $8,520 a year. Price level 100.058 against 88.528; property tax 0.84% against 1.02%.

Athens vs Atlanta — Athens by $5,113 a year. Price level 93.343 against 100.058; property tax 0.85% against 0.84%.

Atlanta vs Gainesville — Gainesville by $2,779 a year. Price level 100.058 against 96.766; property tax 0.84% against 0.76%.

Atlanta vs Warner Robins — Warner Robins by $4,552 a year. Price level 100.058 against 93.789; property tax 0.84% against 0.90%.

Atlanta vs Valdosta — Valdosta by $9,286 a year. Price level 100.058 against 88.271; property tax 0.84% against 0.90%.

Albany vs Atlanta — Albany by $8,205 a year. Price level 87.669 against 100.058; property tax 1.26% against 0.84%.

Atlanta vs Dalton — Dalton by $8,918 a year. Price level 100.058 against 89.844; property tax 0.84% against 0.66%.

Atlanta vs Brunswick — Brunswick by $10,617 a year. Price level 100.058 against 87.708; property tax 0.84% against 0.72%.

Atlanta vs Rome — Rome by $8,016 a year. Price level 100.058 against 90.161; property tax 0.84% against 0.80%.

Atlanta vs Hinesville — Hinesville by $3,814 a year. Price level 100.058 against 93.933; property tax 0.84% against 1.04%.

Augusta vs Savannah — Augusta by $3,447 a year. Price level 91.903 against 95.206; property tax 0.72% against 0.90%.

Augusta vs Columbus — Columbus by $2,033 a year. Price level 91.903 against 89.296; property tax 0.72% against 0.78%.

Augusta vs Macon — Macon by $1,660 a year. Price level 91.903 against 88.528; property tax 0.72% against 1.02%.

Athens vs Augusta — Augusta by $1,747 a year. Price level 93.343 against 91.903; property tax 0.85% against 0.72%.

Augusta vs Gainesville — Augusta by $4,081 a year. Price level 91.903 against 96.766; property tax 0.72% against 0.76%.

Augusta vs Warner Robins — Augusta by $2,308 a year. Price level 91.903 against 93.789; property tax 0.72% against 0.90%.

Augusta vs Valdosta — Valdosta by $2,426 a year. Price level 91.903 against 88.271; property tax 0.72% against 0.90%.

Albany vs Augusta — Albany by $1,345 a year. Price level 87.669 against 91.903; property tax 1.26% against 0.72%.

Augusta vs Dalton — Dalton by $2,058 a year. Price level 91.903 against 89.844; property tax 0.72% against 0.66%.

Columbus vs Savannah — Columbus by $5,480 a year. Price level 89.296 against 95.206; property tax 0.78% against 0.90%.

Augusta vs Brunswick — Brunswick by $3,757 a year. Price level 91.903 against 87.708; property tax 0.72% against 0.72%.

And 67 more pairs of Georgia cities, each with its own page.

Every Georgia city, and what it can be compared with

The areas themselves, largest first. Each line has what defines that city on the two measures that matter here, and then every comparison it takes part in:

Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell — 6.2m people across 29 counties. Price level 100.058, housing 111.022, property tax 0.84%. Compared with Augusta, Savannah, Columbus, Macon, Athens, Gainesville, Warner Robins, Valdosta, Albany, Dalton, Brunswick, Rome, Hinesville.

Augusta-Richmond County — 618k people across 7 counties. Price level 91.903, housing 70.603, property tax 0.72%. Compared with Atlanta, Savannah, Columbus, Macon, Athens, Gainesville, Warner Robins, Valdosta, Albany, Dalton, Brunswick, Rome, Hinesville.

Savannah — 412k people across 3 counties. Price level 95.206, housing 86.012, property tax 0.90%. Compared with Atlanta, Augusta, Columbus, Macon, Athens, Gainesville, Warner Robins, Valdosta, Albany, Dalton, Brunswick, Rome, Hinesville.

Columbus — 326k people across 7 counties. Price level 89.296, housing 61.185, property tax 0.78%. Compared with Atlanta, Augusta, Savannah, Macon, Athens, Gainesville, Warner Robins, Valdosta, Albany, Dalton, Brunswick, Rome, Hinesville.

Macon-Bibb County — 234k people across 5 counties. Price level 88.528, housing 58.916, property tax 1.02%. Compared with Atlanta, Augusta, Savannah, Columbus, Athens, Gainesville, Warner Robins, Valdosta, Albany, Dalton, Brunswick, Rome, Hinesville.

Athens-Clarke County — 218k people across 4 counties. Price level 93.343, housing 76.759, property tax 0.85%. Compared with Atlanta, Augusta, Savannah, Columbus, Macon, Gainesville, Warner Robins, Valdosta, Albany, Dalton, Brunswick, Rome, Hinesville.

Gainesville — 208k people across 1 county. Price level 96.766, housing 93.488, property tax 0.76%. Compared with Atlanta, Augusta, Savannah, Columbus, Macon, Athens, Warner Robins, Valdosta, Albany, Dalton, Brunswick, Rome, Hinesville.

Warner Robins — 195k people across 2 counties. Price level 93.789, housing 79.172, property tax 0.90%. Compared with Atlanta, Augusta, Savannah, Columbus, Macon, Athens, Gainesville, Valdosta, Albany, Dalton, Brunswick, Rome, Hinesville.

Valdosta — 149k people across 4 counties. Price level 88.271, housing 58.758, property tax 0.90%. Compared with Atlanta, Augusta, Savannah, Columbus, Macon, Athens, Gainesville, Warner Robins, Albany, Dalton, Brunswick, Rome, Hinesville.

Albany — 147k people across 4 counties. Price level 87.669, housing 54.626, property tax 1.26%. Compared with Atlanta, Augusta, Savannah, Columbus, Macon, Athens, Gainesville, Warner Robins, Valdosta, Dalton, Brunswick, Rome, Hinesville.

Dalton — 143k people across 2 counties. Price level 89.844, housing 63.342, property tax 0.66%. Compared with Atlanta, Augusta, Savannah, Columbus, Macon, Athens, Gainesville, Warner Robins, Valdosta, Albany, Brunswick, Rome, Hinesville.

Brunswick-St. Simons — 114k people across 3 counties. Price level 87.708, housing 56.34, property tax 0.72%. Compared with Atlanta, Augusta, Savannah, Columbus, Macon, Athens, Gainesville, Warner Robins, Valdosta, Albany, Dalton, Rome, Hinesville.

Rome — 99k people across 1 county. Price level 90.161, housing 60.276, property tax 0.80%. Compared with Atlanta, Augusta, Savannah, Columbus, Macon, Athens, Gainesville, Warner Robins, Valdosta, Albany, Dalton, Brunswick, Hinesville.

Hinesville — 84k people across 2 counties. Price level 93.933, housing 79.46, property tax 1.04%. Compared with Atlanta, Augusta, Savannah, Columbus, Macon, Athens, Gainesville, Warner Robins, Valdosta, Albany, Dalton, Brunswick, Rome.

The counties behind each rate

Nobody pays a metropolitan area's property tax rate. They pay their county's, and the figures above are those county rates averaged and weighted by how many homes each county holds. Opened up:

Atlanta averages 0.84% across 29 counties: Fulton County 0.89%, Gwinnett County 0.98%, DeKalb County 0.92%, Cobb County 0.69%, Clayton County 0.89%, Cherokee County 0.70%, Forsyth County 0.76%, Henry County 0.92%, and 21 more. Inside the area the rate runs from 0.62% in Carroll County to 0.98% in Gwinnett County, which is $1,415 a year on a $400,000 home — a real spread inside a single labour market.

Augusta averages 0.72% across 7 counties: Richmond County 0.88%, Aiken County 0.43%, Columbia County 0.85%, Edgefield County 0.45%, Burke County 0.91%, McDuffie County 0.85%, Lincoln County 0.88%. Inside the area the rate runs from 0.43% in Aiken County to 0.91% in Burke County, which is $1,900 a year on a $400,000 home — a real spread inside a single labour market.

Savannah averages 0.90% across 3 counties: Chatham County 0.90%, Effingham County 0.96%, Bryan County 0.79%. Inside the area the rate runs from 0.79% in Bryan County to 0.96% in Effingham County, which is $668 a year on a $400,000 home — a real spread inside a single labour market.

Columbus averages 0.78% across 7 counties: Muscogee County 0.84%, Russell County 0.41%, Harris County 0.89%, Marion County 0.70%, Talbot County 1.09%, Chattahoochee County 0.99%, Stewart County 1.71%. Inside the area the rate runs from 0.41% in Russell County to 1.71% in Stewart County, which is $5,188 a year on a $400,000 home — a real spread inside a single labour market.

Macon averages 1.02% across 5 counties: Bibb County 1.10%, Jones County 0.96%, Monroe County 0.69%, Crawford County 0.84%, Twiggs County 0.82%. Inside the area the rate runs from 0.69% in Monroe County to 1.10% in Bibb County, which is $1,660 a year on a $400,000 home — a real spread inside a single labour market.

Athens averages 0.85% across 4 counties: Clarke County 0.90%, Oconee County 0.72%, Madison County 0.81%, Oglethorpe County 0.80%. Inside the area the rate runs from 0.72% in Oconee County to 0.90% in Clarke County, which is $720 a year on a $400,000 home — a real spread inside a single labour market.

Gainesville averages 0.76% across 1 county: Hall County 0.76%. One county, so the area rate is that county's rate exactly — no averaging involved.

Warner Robins averages 0.90% across 2 counties: Houston County 0.86%, Peach County 1.12%. Inside the area the rate runs from 0.86% in Houston County to 1.12% in Peach County, which is $1,074 a year on a $400,000 home — a real spread inside a single labour market.

Valdosta averages 0.90% across 4 counties: Lowndes County 0.83%, Brooks County 1.28%, Lanier County 1.02%, Echols County 0.99%. Inside the area the rate runs from 0.83% in Lowndes County to 1.28% in Brooks County, which is $1,804 a year on a $400,000 home — a real spread inside a single labour market.

Albany averages 1.26% across 4 counties: Dougherty County 1.39%, Lee County 1.00%, Worth County 1.09%, Terrell County 1.10%. Inside the area the rate runs from 1.00% in Lee County to 1.39% in Dougherty County, which is $1,566 a year on a $400,000 home — a real spread inside a single labour market.

Dalton averages 0.66% across 2 counties: Whitfield County 0.67%, Murray County 0.64%. Inside the area the rate runs from 0.64% in Murray County to 0.67% in Whitfield County, which is $128 a year on a $400,000 home — a real spread inside a single labour market.

Brunswick averages 0.72% across 3 counties: Glynn County 0.64%, Brantley County 1.12%, McIntosh County 0.75%. Inside the area the rate runs from 0.64% in Glynn County to 1.12% in Brantley County, which is $1,927 a year on a $400,000 home — a real spread inside a single labour market.

Rome averages 0.80% across 1 county: Floyd County 0.80%. One county, so the area rate is that county's rate exactly — no averaging involved.

Hinesville averages 1.04% across 2 counties: Liberty County 1.05%, Long County 1.00%. Inside the area the rate runs from 1.00% in Long County to 1.05% in Liberty County, which is $223 a year on a $400,000 home — a real spread inside a single labour market.

Which is the limitation of every figure on this page, stated rather than buried: an area rate is an average, and your address decides what you actually pay. The county pages linked above carry the rate, the assessment basis and the source for each one.

Where Georgia cities sit among the 380 in the country

A state ranking answers "where in Georgia". It does not answer whether Georgia is an expensive place to begin with, and the two questions have different answers often enough to be worth separating.

Against all 380 metropolitan areas the Bureau of Economic Analysis prices, Atlanta ranks 85 and Albany ranks 339, counting from the most expensive. The national median area sits at 93.492 — Monroe — so 5 of these 14 Georgia areas are dearer than the typical American metropolitan area and 9 are cheaper.

Neither end of this state reaches the national extremes, which run from 115.613 to 83.597.

The distinction matters for a specific reason. Everything on this page holds the income tax constant because these cities share a state; the moment a move crosses a state line that stops being true, and the comparison becomes the harder one — which is what Georgia against every other state is for.

The tax that is the same in all 14

Worth spelling out, because it is what makes the ranking above readable at all. On $100,000, in every one of these areas:

Federal income tax — $13,170. Set by Congress, identical everywhere in the United States.

Social Security and Medicare — $7,650. Also federal, and also flat across the country up to the Social Security ceiling.

Georgia income tax — $4,391. One set of brackets for the whole state, one standard deduction, applied identically in every city on this page.

Local income tax — $0. Georgia does not permit counties, cities or school districts to levy their own. That is not a modelling shortcut, it is the law, and it is the condition on which these pages get published: in the eleven states that do permit it, the levying jurisdictions do not line up with metropolitan areas and no honest rate can be assigned.

Which leaves property tax as the only tax in the whole comparison that moves — from $2,656 to $5,027 a year on the same $400,000 home — and the price level as the only other thing. Two variables, both measured, both sourced. It is as clean as a cost-of-living comparison gets.

The top of this table changes depending on whether you buy

A ranking built on one salary and one house value is worth exactly as much as its assumptions, so here are the same 14 areas resolved again with those assumptions changed.

Renting, with no property tax at all: Albany moves to the top, ahead of Brunswick. Property tax is what was holding the order in place, which means a renter and a buyer looking at the same two cities should reach different answers.

On $60,000 instead of $100,000: Brunswick still leads. The gap narrows to $6,847 — smaller in dollars, but a larger share of a smaller salary.

On $250,000: Brunswick still leads, and by $24,200 — the spread widens with income, because the price level applies to everything you have left after tax.

This is the same discipline applied to a single published figure elsewhere on this site: a number without its range is half a number. Every page linked above lets you set your own salary, your own house and your own horizon, and recomputes the whole comparison rather than scaling it.

How this is worked out, and what it does not claim

Every row is the same calculation: gross salary in, federal income tax and FICA out, Georgia income tax out, property tax on a $400,000 home out — then what is left divided by that area's price level, so the figure is what the money buys rather than what the payslip says.

The price index is the Bureau of Economic Analysis Regional Price Parity, 2024, published per metropolitan area with a documented method and broken into housing, goods, utilities and services. Which counties make up each area comes from the Census Bureau delineation file, joined by CBSA code and never by name — there are thirty "Washington County" in the United States and a join on names would have failed silently.

US Bureau of Economic Analysis — Regional Price Parities by State and Metro Area, 2024 (released 19 February 2026) — read 2026-09-10. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area

US Census Bureau — Core Based Statistical Areas delineation file, 2023 (which counties form each metropolitan area) — read 2026-09-10. https://www.census.gov/geographies/reference-files/time-series/demo/metro-micro/delineation-files.html

US Census Bureau, American Community Survey — county effective property tax rates and housing units — read 2026-08-31. https://data.census.gov/

What it does not claim: that the city at the top is the better place to live. This measures what a salary buys. Schools, the commute, the weather and how far you are from your family are not in it, and on a move inside one state they are usually what actually decides it.

It also assumes one salary, one house value and a buyer rather than a renter. Every page linked above lets you change all three, and the answer moves with them — on some pairs enough to change which city comes out ahead.

Questions

Which city in Georgia leaves you best off?

Brunswick, at $81,986 of purchasing power on $100,000 with a $400,000 home — $10,617 a year more than Atlanta at the other end of the table. Because the income tax is identical everywhere in Georgia, that ranking is made of two things only: the price level and property tax.

Which is the cheapest city in Georgia?

Albany, at 87.669 on the Bureau of Economic Analysis price index where 100 is the US average, against 100.058 in Atlanta. Cheapest is not the same as best off, though: property tax is set separately and can move a household by $1,648 a year on the same house.

Does income tax differ between cities in Georgia?

No. Georgia sets one set of brackets for the whole state, and it does not let counties or cities levy their own income tax. On $100,000 the bill is federal $13,170, FICA $7,650 and state $4,391 in every one of these 14 areas. That is what makes comparing them clean.

How much does cost of living vary inside Georgia?

From 87.669 to 100.058 on the price index — 12.4 points between Albany and Atlanta. In take-home terms that is $10,617 a year of purchasing power on the same salary.

How many Georgia city comparisons are there?

91, one page each, every pair of the 14 metropolitan areas the Bureau of Economic Analysis prices in Georgia. Each resolves the same way — income tax, property tax and price level — and each shows the break-even salary in both directions.