Why Is Washington State So Expensive?

Beyond housing, some other costs are unusually high, too. Gas at the pump is the second most expensive in the U.S., per a report. Transportation is a big factor — oil has to be brought in over mountainous terrain and delivered to spread-out population centers, says James McCafferty, director of the Center for Economic & Business Research at Western Washington University. Only a small portion of Washington’s oil comes via pipeline, the cheapest transportation method — with the rest delivered more expensively via ship and rail.

“North Dakota can send their oil south into the U.S through a pipeline for far less expense than it is to ship it by train to northwest Washington to be refined,” McCafferty says. High labor costs make it more expensive to refine the oil in the state, too, he adds.