The financial services company Bankrate has released a new report about the cost of living in the DC area, and the results might surprise you.
In Bankrate’s analysis of the country’s top 25 largest metropolitan regions, DC ranked the eighth-most expensive for cost of living. And the DC area registered a 7.9 percent drop in buying power.
That might not seem like good news, but 7.9 percent is actually much less than other areas. For example, the report notes that Los Angeles saw a 13.4 percent drop in buying power. Seattle dropped 11.5 percent, and New York dipped 11.1 percent.
According to the study, average income earners living in the San Francisco metro area fared the worst. High living costs cut their buying power by more than 15 percent.
Four markets saw their buying power increase: San Antonio, St. Louis, Charlotte, and Detroit.
Sarah Foster, an economic analyst at Bankrate, told WTOP that: “DC might be best described as one of those cities that’s a little bit of the best of both worlds. San Francisco had that huge bite out of the cost of living, whereas the cost of living bite that the average worker is experiencing in the DC metro area is considerably smaller.”
Feature image, Nattakorn/stock.adobe.com
