San Diego ranks among most expensive U.S. cities

San Diego is among the most expensive cities in the country.

Driving the news: San Diego is America's eighth priciest city, according to the Council for Community and Economic Research's quarterly cost-of-living index, designed to measure "regional differences in the cost of consumer goods and services," Axios' Alex Fitzpatrick and Kavya Beheraj report.

• San Diego's cost of living is about 40 points higher than the average American city, based on prices for housing, utilities, transportation, groceries, health care and goods and services, placing it roughly in line with Los Angeles, Seattle, Washington, D.C. and Oakland.

Of note: The group broke New York into separate boroughs. If it hadn't, New York as a whole would have come in as the most expensive city in America.

The big picture: The report underscores the persistence of "the coastal tax," with the most expensive cities in the country clustered along the Pacific and Atlantic coasts.

By the numbers: The driving forces behind San Diego's ranking were in housing and transportation.

• Housing in San Diego came in 114 points above the average of the 269 urban areas included in the report.
• California is home to six of the 12 cities with the most expensive transportation in the country. That includes San Diego, where transportation costs are 26 points above the average of the urban areas included.
• San Diego's utilities and health care costs were the most affordable of the areas included in the cost-of-living index, with both coming in just above average.