Parking Is Expensive In Minneapolis, But It Cost More Elsewhere

MINNEAPOLIS, MN – If you drive downtown for work each weekday, you probably dread having to shell out cash for a parking spot. Here in Minneapolis, we spend about $23 per day on parking. That's nothing compared to what commuters pay in New York City, Boston or Chicago, where they fork out between $30 and $42 for a spot.

The Big Apple has higher parking rates than every other major metropolitan area in the United States, according to a new parking index released by Parkopedia.

The index ranked parking rates in the central business districts of the top 40 U.S. cities. The rankings are divided by hourly, daily and monthly parking rates and New York City has the highest rates in all three categories.

To create the index, Parkopedia used data from more than 650 parking facilities that cover more than 300,000 parking spaces. Parking prices were calculated as the median of corresponding parking rates for all publicly available off-street parking facilities in a city center.

According to the index, the median hourly parking rate in Minneapolis is $10. That's not bad, considering NYC’s city center is $27. By comparison, Chicago and Boston had median hourly parking rates of $17 and $16, respectively.

The cities with the highest median hourly parking rates are:

1. New York City: $27
2. Chicago: $17
3. Boston: $16
4. Philadelphia: $12
5. Washington D.C.: $11
6. Minneapolis: $10
7. Los Angeles: $9.50
8. Cleveland: $9
9. Detroit: $9
10. Denver: $8

Meanwhile, Minneapolis' median daily parking rate is $23. In New York, people pay a median daily rate of $42.25.

The cities with the highest median daily parking rates are:

1. New York City: $42.25
2. Boston: $34
3. Chicago: $30
4. San Francisco: $28
5. Miami: $25
6. Philadelphia: $25
7. Bellevue: $24
8. Seattle: $24
9. Minneapolis: $23
10. Charlotte: $21

Maybe you buy your parking by the month. Here in Minneapolis, people pay a median rate of $260 per month. In New York City, the monthly rate is a whopping $616 for unreserved monthly parking, meaning parking in a guaranteed but not a dedicated space. After New York City, Boston and San Francisco have the highest monthly parking rates for unreserved spots.

The cities with the most expensive median monthly parking rates for unreserved spots are:

1. New York City: $616
2. Boston: $425
3. San Francisco: $322.50
4. Seattle: $289
5. Philadelphia: $284.50
6. Washington D.C.: $274
7. Chicago: $265
8. Minneapolis: $260
9. Pittsburgh: $235
10. Bellevue: $222

Parkopedia did not rank New York City in the fourth category: median monthly reserved parking rates, which means parking in a guaranteed and dedicated space. In that category, Washington D.C. had the highest median monthly rates. (The good news here, Minneapolis did NOT make the Top 10, but rather the 11-spot with a median monthly rate of $300.)

The cities with the highest median monthly rates for reserved spots are:

1. Washington D.C.: $555
2. Boston: $550
3. Chicago: $547
4. Los Angeles: $418
5. San Francisco: $410
6. Seattle: $400
7. Baltimore: $375
8. Philadelphia: $370
9. Pittsburgh: $355
10. Bellevue: $325

You can see the full report here.