San Antonio Tops in Credit Card Debt (Houston, Dallas: insurance, mortgage)

[IonRedline08]

Originally Posted by skeet09

My boss has a good theory. He said that some of the cities on the list have military bases on them so there is a lot of families that are perhaps putting some moving expenses on the credit card.

From looking at the list, my theory is that most of those places have a pretty high cost of living with not a lot of jobs. Which doesn't help to explain San Antonio, but cities like Honolulu, Norfolk, Seattle, Austin, Richmond, San Diego are all pretty pricey to live in.

Also, looks like a lot of these towns have large colleges or universities.... I wonder if that has something to do with it?

[skeet09]

Originally Posted by IonRedline08

From looking at the list, my theory is that most of those places have a pretty high cost of living with not a lot of jobs. Which doesn't help to explain San Antonio, but cities like Honolulu, Norfolk, Seattle, Austin, Richmond, San Diego are all pretty pricey to live in.

Also, looks like a lot of these towns have large colleges or universities.... I wonder if that has something to do with it?

Yup...could be that too!

[L210]

Austin's price of living index is slightly lower than the national average, so that doesn't really explain why it would stand out from other cities. I think each city has its own reason. Some of the cities have unemployment rates above the national average, some cities have lower median incomes and higher poverty rates than the national average (San Antonio), some of these places have a high cost of living, and some of these places have military bases.

[merc11ty]

Guess they gotta get their taco fix, whether they can afford it or not.

[CptnRn]

San Antonio is not the lowest in any of these areas.

From the City-Data pages:

Estimated median household income in 2009:
Austin: $50,132
Houston: $42,945
San Antonio: $42,513
Dallas: $39,829
El Paso: $37,030

Estimated per capita income in 2009
Austin: $29,233
Dallas: $25,941
Houston: $25,563
San Antonio: $21,053
El Paso: $17,580


Jan. 2011 cost of living index: all less than average, U.S. average is 100
Houston: 93.0
Austin: 94.8
Dallas: 94.4
San Antonio: 88.1
El Paso: 83.2

[L210]

Did anyone say San Antonio was the lowest? I haven't read all of the posts in a long time. San Antonio IS below the national average when it comes to median income and above the national average when it comes to poverty rate.

[CptnRn]

Did anyone say San Antonio was the lowest? I haven't read all of the posts in a long time. San Antonio IS below the national average when it comes to median income and above the national average when it comes to poverty rate.

My post #35 above was in response to this and several other comments.

Originally Posted by IonRedline08

From looking at the list, my theory is that most of those places have a pretty high cost of living with not a lot of jobs. Which doesn't help to explain San Antonio, but cities like Honolulu, Norfolk, Seattle, Austin, Richmond, San Diego are all pretty pricey to live in.

I should have said that San Antonio was not the lowest in income, it is second lowest in cost of living. San Antonio has a higher median household income then Dallas and El Paso. so you can't blame high credit card debt on low income.

San Antonio has a lower cost of living then Houston, Dallas or Austin so you can't blame high credit card debt on cost of living.

Austin (94.8) does not have a significantly higher cost of living then Houston or Dallas and is far less then the US Average of 100. The cost of living in Norfolk 98.6 and Richmond 95.4 is higher then any Texas city but still less then the US Average. Cost of living in these other cities, Honolulu 166.5, Seattle 117.1 & San Diego 131.4 are far higher then Austin, so high that they do not even belong on the same list.

[L210]

I think there are two options:

1. Each city has its own reason.

2. It could just be a cultural thing.

[Ylilywood]

Many people find themselves in a position of high credit card debt for medical reasons, job loss, or in an effort to keep a business alive and growing. Cost of advertising, rent, and many other business expenses threaten the owner to the point of using a credit card to stay alive. If this doesn't improve the business situation, then the business owner begins to add living expenses also to the credit card debt. This continues, always with the hopes and expectation that the business will improve and somehow, they'll "catch up". Often, they fall into the hands of companies taking great advantage of them and charging enormous percentage fees for " helping" them. These venues are mostly illegal or slide by and are not properly checked out by frustrated people in need of help. They need to check the resumes of who is helping them to see if they are BBB accredited and find out who they are. Many do not need to go into bankruptcy but a bankruptcy lawyer wouldn't turn them away and lose that big fee.
I believe there exists an alternative method that gives these people a chance for a new start, but again - resume tells all.
I'm researching the different areas of Houston and how they're dealing with this situation. New to this area I'm interested in how to find out which areas have the highest credit card debt and which ares have the highest rate of business closing and which ares have highest job loss.
Might someone have some ideas how I could best gather this information?
Ylily

[SsnTktHldr]

It's easy. Just dig up a 2 yr old thread PAGES back and all the answers will come to you...