by Roberta Murphy

Ah… the luxury of being able to comfortably live in one of the most expensive cities in the world (so why not divide one’s time between them–just for bragging rights?:-)

CNBC just released their 10 most expensive cities in the world to live where they included 200 factors such as costs for a 2-bedroom luxury apartment, utilities, transportation, food, clothing, entertainment and so on.

It might come as no surprise that three of the top 10 are in Japan, two are in Switzerland and two in Africa.

So, without boring our readers with details, we cut to the chase, offer the cities in descending order and include the expected monthly rent for a luxury 2-bedroom apartment plus cost of a fast meal and a cup of coffee:

1. Tokyo, Japan where rent runs $4848, a cup of coffee $8.29 and fast-food meal $8.29
2. Luanda, Angola where monthly rent runs $6500, a cup of coffee a bargain at $3.90 and a fast food meal for around $19.94
3. Osaka, Japan offers the luxury apartment at $3062, a cup of coffee at $7.02 and the fast-food meal at $8.29.
4. Moscow, Russia has their luxury apartment at $4200, with cup of coffee at $8.37 and the fast-food meal at $6.70. (And how about an international newspaper at $9.78?)
5. Geneva, Switzerland presents the luxury apartment at $4818, with cup of coffee at $6.57 and the fast food meal at a whopping $12.59.
6. Zurich, Switzerland (compare to Geneva) offers a comparable apartment at $3614, a cup of coffee at $6.02, and a fast food meal at $12.59.
7. Singpore might offer luxury digs at $3588, a cup of coffee for $5.18 and a fast food meal for $5.66
8. N’Djamena, Chad …just doesn’t seem to have much in the way of luxury 2-bedroom apartments for expatriates. But should you find a place to live, you’ll pay $3.32 for a cup of coffee and an outrageous sum of $25.18 for a fast-food meal.  Personal safety and OIL are big issues here.
9. Hong Kong offers a very pricey (but comparable) apartment for $7092 per month, the cup of coffee at $6.83–with a bargain fast food meal at $3.54.
10. Nagoya, Japan has the bargain luxury apartment at $2551 per month, the cup of coffee at $6.38 and the fast food meal at $8.42

Sitting in San Diego, I feel as if we are living in paradise at bargain basement prices.

Another cup of coffee, please?

The post Want to Live in a Most Expensive City? appeared first on Luxury Home Digest.

It’s interesting to study living costs in the most expensive cities in the world–at least as tabulated for 2009. According to Mercers, who tabulate these statistics for expatriate living, the 10 most expensive cities (based on housing, food, entertainment, clothing and transportation) are:

1. Tokyo

2. Osaka

3. Moscow

4. Geneva

5. Hong Kong

6. Zurich

7. Copenhagen

8. New York

9. Beijing

10. Singapore

Mercer’s, in their studies for expatriate cost of living, tabulates these costs for 143 cities in 65 continents and published their results each year. New York is used ars the base city and is given a score of 100. Using that base, Tokyo, for example, scores 143.7 and is almost three times as expensive as Johannesburg, which has an index of 49.6 and is one of the most reasonable places to live.

The top 5 most expensive cities in the Americas are New York City (8), Caracas, Venezuela (15), Los Angeles (23) White Plains (31) and San Francisco (34), while Asia and Europe dominate the worldly top ten list.

Now, we await the Mercer;s Most Expensive Cities list for 2010–especially in light of volatile currency swings.

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