Local cost of living lower than average
Texarkana scores 86.6 on index; NYC comes in at 245.7
TEXARKANA — The cost of living in the Texarkana urban area is lower than the national average, according to recent measurements.
Texarkana’s first-quarter 2020 Cost of Living Index is 86.6, where a score of 100 represents the average of 257 urban areas nationwide, according to the Council for Community and Economic Research.
By contrast, New York, the city with the highest cost of living in the U.S., scored 245.7, or almost 2.5 times the national average. McAllen, Texas, the least expensive city in the country, has a Cost of Living Index of 75.2.
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 with top-20% incomes. It is based on more than 90,000 prices covering 60 items for which prices are collected quarterly by chambers of commerce, economic development organizations and university applied economic centers in each participating urban area.
The composite index is based on six component categories: housing, utilities, grocery items, transportation, health care, and miscellaneous goods and services.
A specific measurement of food cost, based on prices of 26 items, gives Texarkana a score of 96.3. Groceries cost the most in Honolulu, with a score of 169.3, and the least in Kalamazoo, Michigan, with a score of 74.6.
The Texarkana USA Chamber of Commerce partnered with CCER to compile data and distributed the quarterly Cost of Living Index report locally on Wednesday.