The 5 Most Expensive Places to Raise a Family

Want to be able to provide for your family of four? Move west. At least that seems to be the lesson of MarketWatch's list of the 10 most expensive places to raise a family. MarketWatch came up with the list by looking at data from the Economic Policy Institute think tank, which studied the cost of housing, child care, transportation, school supplies, food, and more in 618 metro areas. “This does not mean a middle-class lifestyle,” the institute's Elise Gould clarifies. “This is just living, no savings.” Here are the US' top-five most-expensive places to raise a family:

• Stamford-Norwalk, Connecticut: It costs a two-parent, two-child household an average of $97,350 per year just to make ends meet in an area where housing is a whopping $22,290 per year and taxes ($15,487) are nearly as expensive as household necessities ($15,603).

• New York City: It may cost your family $98,722 per year to make it in the big city, but at least your transportation costs will be lower.

• Westchester County, New York: Taxes ($15,589) are the biggest yearly expense where it costs families $99,592 per year to get by.

• Nassau-Suffolk, New York: Families in this area pay an average of $103,606 per year to cover the basics. At this rate, maybe New York isn't the best place to raise a family.

• Washington, DC: The most expensive place to raise a family in this great country? Our nation's capital, of course. Massively pricey child care ($31,158) helps push the total yearly spending for a family of four to $106,606.

See the full list here. (More family stories.)