Miami Among America's "Most Overpriced Cities"

In news that will shock no one who eats out on South Beach, parks in Brickell or tries to buy some influence with the Miami-Dade County Commission (those lobbying fees ain't cheap!), Miami has been honored this morning as one of the most overpriced towns in the nation.

High unemployment, skyrocketing cost of living, expensive housing and the inability of residents to resist those Russian models waving menus around tourist traps on Lincoln Road are all cited in the report. (OK, maybe not that last one.)

Miami ranked third on Forbes' list, clocking in behind only Los Angeles and Fresno.

To calculate where living is "overpriced," Forbes started with the 100 largest metro areas in the States, then crunched housing affordability, cost-of-living, the average paycheck and the area's unemployment.

Miami's numbers easily bumped it into the top three, with unemployment still over 10 percent, a median college-grad salary of $55,000 and a relatively high average cost for food and rent.

Forbes is more methodical than some of the other traffic-baiting list makers out there, but their choice of data in this project did lead to some odd results. (Fresno is really more over-priced than San Francisco? And McAllen, Texas is in the top five?)

But on a list so reliant on unemployment and property costs, it's no surprise that Florida pulled in three of the top ten slots, with West Palm coming in sixth and Bradenton ninth.

Here's the top ten, according to Forbes:

1. Los Angeles
2. Fresno
3. Miami
4. McAllen, Texas
5. Providence, Rhode Island
6. West Palm Beach
7. El Paso, Texas
8. Honolulu
9. Bradenton, Florida
10. San Jose