($1,686) Movers From Portland, ME to St. Paul, MN

What to know before moving from Portland to St. Paul

Moving from Portland to St. Paul comes with exciting new opportunities — but also higher living costs. Since St. Paul is generally more expensive than Portland, it’s important to plan ahead and budget carefully for the change.

Check out how the two cities compare so you know what to expect before you relocate:

• Rent prices in St. Paul are 32% lower than in Portland, which means you’ll have more money in your pocket each month.
• In terms of homeownership, you’ll be able to get more for your money in St. Paul.
  Home prices in St. Paul are 48.7% lower than in Portland.
• Income in St. Paul is 1.1% lower than in Portland, so you could earn less for doing the same job. The top employers in St. Paul include Siemens, ACS Group, and 3M.
• Be sure to budget for higher bills in St. Paul, since the cost of living for a single person in St. Paul is 45.8% higher than in Portland. This includes routine expenses like utilities, groceries, clothing, and transportation.
• The cost of living for a family in St. Paul is 29.2% lower than in Portland.
• The unemployment rate in St. Paul is 5.77% lower than in Portland.
• You’ll spend more on retail and restaurants in St. Paul, since the city’s sales taxes in St. Paul are 79.64% higher than in Portland.
• State income taxes in St. Paul are 69.83% higher than in Portland.

To put this in perspective, you would need around $4,375.35 in St. Paul to maintain the same standard of life that you can have with $3,000.00 in Portland.

How life is different in Portland vs. St. Paul

• The population of St. Paul is about 343% greater than Portland, so you may find more to see and do in your new surroundings. Of course, with more people can also come increased competition for jobs and housing.
• St. Paul offers better access to buses and trains than Portland, based on public transportation ratings. St. Paul has a transit score of 8 out of 10 compared to 6 in Portland. The higher the score, the more public transportation pickup and dropoff locations a city provides.
• You’ll find St. Paul to be about as walkable as Portland. The two cities have similar walkability scores of 60 and 62 respectively out of 100 in terms of how close housing is to businesses, recreational facilities, and jobs.
• You probably won’t see as many cycling lanes or off-road trails in St. Paul, which is ranked as less bike-friendly than Portland. While Portland has a bike-friendliness score of 68 out of 100, St. Paul earned a 64. Scores are based on factors like whether a city accommodates cyclists on major roadways, how often people bike to work, and how many steep hills it has.
• The crime rate in St. Paul is higher than in Portland, so you may want to exercise a little extra caution as you're acclimating to your new location. While the crime index is 50.86 in St. Paul, it is 32.16 in Portland. With this index, the lower the score, the better, since it indicates a city’s crime levels.
• You may want to exercise more caution as you’re getting used to your new surroundings in St. Paul. With a crime index of 49.14, St. Paul ranks lower in overall safety than Portland, whose index is Portland's 67.84. The safety index measures how safe people in a city feel about walking alone, both during the day and at night, as well as data on muggings, theft, vandalism, and other instances of petty crime.
• The air quality in St. Paul and Portland is generally the same (Good). Cities with good to moderate ratings have clean or acceptable air quality, with the possibility of small pollutants affecting people with certain health conditions like asthma. Anything beyond the moderate rate means increased impact on residents.