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PRESS RELEASE - For Immediate Release
October 2017
Among the 267 urban areas that participated in the third quarter 2017 Cost of Living Index, the after-tax cost for a professional/managerial standard of living ranged from more than twice the national average in New York (Manhattan) NY to more than 20 percent below the national average in McAllen, TX. The Cost of Living Index is published quarterly by C2ER – The Council for Community and Economic Research.
The Cost of Living Index measures regional differences in the cost of consumer goods and services, excluding taxes and non-consumer expenditures, for professional and managerial households in the top income quintile. It is based on more than 90,000 prices covering 60 different items for which prices are collected quarterly by chambers of commerce, economic development organizations, and university applied economic centers in each participating urban area. Small differences should not be interpreted as showing a measurable difference.
The composite index is based on six component categories – housing, utilities, grocery items, transportation, health care, and miscellaneous goods and services.
What Do Groceries Cost?
Each quarter, C2ER collects more than 90,000 prices from communities across the US for the Cost of Living Index. With food prices a big part of the national media attention, C2ER decided to once again feature those communities with the most and least expensive food costs as measured by the grocery item index number. C2ER collects data on twenty-six items from a variety of surrogate categories to represent the grocery item component of the index.
Cost of Ground Beef?
Over the past two years the cost of ground beef has fluctuated, causing some consumers to shift to poultry as a substitute. Given that when Quarter 3 prices were collected in the season of summer cookouts, we decided to look at the most and least expensive cities to buy a pound of 80% lean ground beef.
The quarterly Cost of Living Index is available by subscription for $175 per year for the print version and $165 per year for the PDF. The electronic version is available for $275 per year. Be sure and ask about our new Expanded Excel version which covers more household and income types. Send check, payable to C2ER, P.O. Box 100127, Arlington VA 22210-0407, or subscribe on the Internet at www.coli.org.
If you need additional information on the Cost of Living Index or other COLI-related products such as the COLI Web Calculator and the COLI Historical Index, please contact Jennie Allison at jallison@crec.net or by phone at 703-522-4980.
