Tampa, despite low-cost image, creeps onto high-rent list

Perception isn’t necessarily reality when it comes to the costliest cities to live in nationally, based on rents, wages and other factors.

For starters, traditional high-cost cities, such as Boston, San Francisco and Washington, D.C., aren’t in the top 10 of a new report from Freddie Mac, the low-to-medium income, government-backed multifamily housing finance agency. In the study, the most rent-burdened metropolitan statistical areas, San Francisco is No. 13, while Washington and Boston aren’t on the list.