[Alberta's Child]

Hawaii and Alaska are expensive places to live because of the high cost of living in cold weather (Alaska), the attractive weather (Hawaii) and the high cost of shipping for most consumer products.

The other locations are places where a very high portion of the population lives in urban areas where the cost of real estate is high.

[Slings and Arrows]

There are many urbanized areas that are much less expensive than the states listed.

[texas booster]

Urban dwellers tend to have very high rates of welfare, police and unions.

State taxes are very high and all that drives up the cost.

But you are correct in that the East Coast megalopolis and the So. California megalopolis create a vortex to push prices up.

[Secret Agent Man]

yeah but in alaska people get paid to live there, so they get an offset automatically from uncle sugar.