The fact that Perth has been ranked as a more expensive place to live than London, Paris and New York doesn't surprise me. It certainly depresses me, though!

For many years one of the main benefits of living in this city was how amazingly cheap it was. You could get by on next to nothing in so many ways. Rent, food, power were all cheap as chips. But now they've all risen substantially. And it's that cumulative effect that changes your whole experience of the place.

Take rent: When I came back from living in Melbourne for about 9 years in 1998 I found this basic but pleasant little unit in Subiaco for just $95 a week. It stayed that way for over 3 years.

But when looking through the ads when I came back in 2010 I saw absolutely nothing in Subi under $220. Most were quite a bit more. I suspect that any unit in that block I used to live in probably cost about $250. They have certainly done it up a bit. But still, that's a huge rise.

I was lucky enough to get a decent place in Yokine for $180 a week in 2010. But that's just been put up another $30 a week! And it's still a bit of a bargain, I suspect.

Only a few years ago Sydney was seen as the most expensive place to live rent wise. But when I was last there for a couple of years (from 2007-2010) I lived in places for only $150 a week. And that cost included power bills. Granted, they were tiny compared to what I'm living in now. Perth just has so much more space. So the average size of units (and houses for that matter) is just so much greater. That is certainly an ameliorating factor.

Perth is still a wonderful place to live. But this high cost of living, alone with the rising crime, make it a much less idyllic place than it was in decades past.