As of 2021, Tel Aviv has displaced Paris as the most expensive city to live in; also outpacing Manhattan and Singapore.
This is largely due to the dollar’s weakness relative to the strengths of the shekel. The result: a US dollar now trades at a 14% loss for the shekel. So the dollar’s buying power in Israel has decreased by 14%.
For every $100, now $114 are needed to buy the same amount of goods in Israel.
Tel Aviv mayor Ron Huldai quoted in Israeli media:
“Tel Aviv will become increasingly more expensive, just as the entire country is becoming more expensive,” he said in an interview with Haaretz. “The fundamental problem is that in Israel there is no alternative metropolitan center. In the United States, there is New York, Chicago, Miami and so on. In Britain, there’s Greater London, Manchester and Liverpool. There you can move to another city if the cost of living is too onerous.”