These San Diego areas are among the most expensive U.S. metros to raise a child

SAN DIEGO -- The joys of raising a child comes with a hefty price tag for those living in some of the nation's most expensive U.S. metros, including several San Diego areas.

That's according to a new study by financial technology company SmartAsset, which set out to calculate these costs by analyzing how much food, housing, childcare, healthcare, transportation and other necessities are costing two-parent households.

SmartAsset says the average cost to raise a child in the U.S. is $20,813 annually with some parts of the country, like California, dishing out more than $30,000 a year per child.

While conducting their study, SmartAsset used data from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Living Wage Calculator to compare the living costs of a household with two adults and one child to that of a childless household with two adults. This data reflects spending in 2022.

The survey's findings show the San Di...