It’s that time of year where you could easily go into debt: the holidays.
With the average holiday spending in 2018 expected to reach more than $1,000, an increase of 4.1 percent since 2017, the new study 2018 Holiday Budgets by City conducted by WalletHub breaks down how much people across the country are spending during the holidays.
Are you someone who goes into debt year-after-year because you have to buy the biggest, brightest, and most expensive gifts for friends, families and other loved ones? Do you blow you entire holiday budget on Black Friday deals?
If you’re wondering if there are other people like you who do the same thing, you might be surprised. Some people go way over their budget, others stay under, and yes, there are some who do stay within in their means. They set a plan, and they abide by it.
Are people on the East Coast more disciplined than the West Coast, keep reading.
To help consumers avoid post-holiday regret, WalletHub used several key metrics, such as income, age and savings-to-monthly expenses ratio, to estimate the maximum spending amounts for consumers in each of 570 U.S. cities.
According to the WalletHub website: “In order to determine the cities with the biggest holiday budgets, WalletHub compared 570 cities across five key metrics: 1) Income, 2) Age, 3) Debt-to-Income Ratio, 4) Monthly Income-to-Monthly Expenses Ratio and 5) Savings-to-Monthly Expenses Ratio. Our calculation is based on WalletHub’s proprietary algorithm, which takes into account the aforementioned five factors to determine the holiday budget for a particular city.
“At a high level, our algorithm considers a consumer to be in a comfortable financial position to engage in holiday spending if they have: 1) enough emergency savings to cover at least six months of expenses and 2) a debt-to-income ratio smaller than 22 percent for a renter or 43 percent for a homeowner. Depending on a city’s specific characteristics, the algorithm adjusts upward or downward to create a custom estimate.”
Here are some interesting takeaways from the report.
| Cities with the Biggest Holiday Budgets | ||||
| 1 | Flower Mound, TX ($2,761) | 11 | San Ramon, CA ($2,036) | |
| 2 | Sunnyvale, CA ($2,575) | 12 | Cary, NC ($2,010) | |
| 3 | Naperville, IL ($2,528) | 13 | Plano, TX ($2,006) | |
| 4 | Mountain View, CA ($2,524) | 14 | Troy, MI ($1,965) | |
| 5 | The Woodlands, TX ($2,444) | 15 | Palo Alto, CA ($1,940) | |
| 6 | Bellevue, WA ($2,411) | 16 | Rochester Hills, MI ($1,919) | |
| 7 | Sugar Land, TX ($2,321) | 17 | Pleasanton, CA ($1,913) | |
| 8 | Allen, TX ($2,244) | 18 | Newton, MA ($1,888) | |
| 9 | Pearland, TX ($2,238) | 19 | Rockville, MD ($1,870) | |
| 10 | Maple Grove, MN ($2,156) | 20 | Shawnee, KS ($1,842) | |
Key Stats
- Cambridge, Mass., has the lowest debt-to-income ratio, 17.91 percent, which is 4.2 times lower than in Menifee, Calif., the city with the highest at 76.10 percent.
- Fishers, Ind., has the lowest expenses-to-income ratio, 59.13 percent, which is 1.7 times lower than in New Haven, Conn., the city with the highest at 99.43 percent.
- Metairie, Louisiana, has the highest savings-to-monthly expenses ratio, 219.41 percent, which is 2.2 times higher than in Glendale, Calif., the city with the lowest at 98.21 percent.
To view the full report click here.
