Discover the Most Expensive City to Heat Homes This Winter

Photo of Douglas A. McIntyre
By Douglas A. McIntyre Published
This post may contain links from our sponsors and affiliates, and Flywheel Publishing may receive compensation for actions taken through them.
Discover the Most Expensive City to Heat Homes This Winter

© JenniferPhotographyImaging / E+ via Getty Images

Winter has already started, judging by the weather in some parts of the country, although it does not officially start until December 21. Usually, people think the coldest cities are the most expensive ones for residents to keep their houses warm. By other measures, not all cities are in the northern tier of the country. So, which is the most expensive city for heating homes in winter? (These cities have the oldest homes.)

Home services marketplace firm HVAC Gnome has compiled a list of the most expensive cities for heating a home this winter. It used some metrics that are not traditional for its 2023’s Most Expensive Cities to Heat a Home in Winter report:

  • Energy costs: The cost of natural gas and electricity
  • Cost inflators: Square footage of homes and the number of homes built before 1999
  • Lack of energy efficiency: Based on LEED (leadership in energy and environmental design) certification

Cities were rated on a scale of 1 to 100. The higher the score, the more expensive it is to heat a home in that city. The list was topped by Springfield, Missouri, with a score of 72.94. Its energy costs were particularly high. Notably, Missouri is not in the northern tier of states. A Missouri city was in third place as well, and another in Missouri was in fifth place.

Two northern cities were in the top five. Cleveland ranked second, while Flint was in fourth place.

10 Most Expensive Cities for Heating Homes in Winter

Olivier Le Moal / Getty Images

  • Springfield, Mo. (72.94)
  • Cleveland, Ohio (72.27)
  • Independence, Mo. (71.08)
  • Flint, Mich. (70.77)
  • Joseph, Mo. (67.41)
  • Topeka, Kan. (67.21)
  • Kansas City, Kan. (66.43)
  • Columbia, Mo. (66.24)
  • Dayton, Ohio (66.20)
  • Detroit, Mich. (65.72)
Photo of Douglas A. McIntyre
About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

Continue Reading

Top Gaining Stocks

CBOE Vol: 1,568,143
PSKY Vol: 12,285,993
STX Vol: 7,378,346
ORCL Vol: 26,317,675
DDOG Vol: 6,247,779

Top Losing Stocks

LKQ
LKQ Vol: 4,367,433
CLX Vol: 13,260,523
SYK Vol: 4,519,455
MHK Vol: 1,859,865
AMGN Vol: 3,818,618