Los Angeles is an expensive place to live. The median home price in our fair market is now $600,000. Median rent for a one-bedroom apartment is $2,000. And you can buy a taco for more than the cost of dinner at Olive Garden.

It's nice, at least, to have your struggle vindicated on an international level — which is what investment consulting firm Mercer has done with its new global Cost of Living Survey.

Los Angeles ranked as the 27th most expensive city in which to reside on the planet.

The firm reported that it looked at housing, transportation, food, clothing, household goods, entertainment and responses to its own survey to come up with its ranking of 209 cities around the world. L.A. climbed nine places in the annual survey.

“Despite mild price increases overall, most cities in the U.S. have climbed in the ranking, primarily due to a strong U.S. dollar,” said Mercer's Nathalie Constantin-Métral, who compiled the ranking.

If you're so well off that Los Angeles still feels like the 99 Cents Only Store of cities, then maybe Hong Kong is the place for you. The Chinese city topped this year's list of most expensive world cities, followed by Luanda (Angola), Zurich, Singapore and Tokyo.

At No. 11, New York was the highest-ranking U.S. city. San Francisco (26th) beat us by one position on the list. And L.A. is costlier than Chicago (34th), Honolulu (37th), Paris (44th) and Miami (45th).

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