Tennessee Ranked Number 1 For Cost of Living - Third Qtr 2008 (Columbia: sales, renting)

[LauraC]

While looking for something else, I ran across this Missouri Government Page website. On the page there is a chart (third one down on the page) that ranks all of the States and the District of Columbia by Cost of Living for the third quarter 2008. Presumably, that's the latest data available. Perhaps if you are interested in Cost of Living info, you should bookmark the page. I'm guessing it's updated every quarter.

Tennessee is ranked Number 1 overall. But, you can also compare the states on groceries, health care, housing, utilities, etc., which should be helpful to people planning a move from another state.

Remember it's a Missouri government website so that state is highlighted on the 50 State chart.

Cost of Living 3rd Quarter 2008

[marmac]

Just one question---------when they base state against state, are they comparing (or taking into account) the average wages paid in that state?

If they are, it would be more meaningfull.

If they are just taking into account the cost in dollars to live , it would only benefit retirees whose income is the same regardless which state they reside in.

Wage earners in the same occupation field might see a huge difference in their paycheck comparing one state to another.

[TheShadow]

I believe TN is also rated one of the lowest in overall tax burden, even taking the high sales tax into account.

[LauraC]

Originally Posted by marmac

Just one question---------when they base state against state, are they comparing (or taking into account) the average wages paid in that state?

If they are, it would be more meaningfull.

If they are just taking into account the cost in dollars to live , it would only benefit retirees whose income is the same regardless which state they reside in.

Wage earners in the same occupation field might see a huge difference in their paycheck comparing one state to another.

Cost of Living definition: The average cost of the basic necessities of life, such as food, shelter, and clothing. (Note: Taxes aren't basic necessities which is why they aren't included.)

You want the chart to be something it's not. It's not Where's The Best Place to Live if You Make The Average State Wages of $40,000 a Year or Where's The Best Place To Live If You Are Moving Without A Job/Pension/Assets and Don't Know What You Can Afford.

Cost of Living isn't income or assets - it's cost. It's the same for Bob the Bag Boy as it is for Mike the Millionaire, Eric the Electrician, Wanda the Welfare Mom, Rick the Retiree or Uma on Unemployment. The Utility Company and Kroger's, for example don't charge you by how much annual income you have. So, if the ranking is done by State, it's done at the average cost of basic necessities at the state level.

Presumably you don't move to another state on a wing and a prayer without a job or knowing your income/savings. You use the chart to see in which state your money will go the farthest before you start looking for a town in that State. Applying State average income to make the rankings is useless information if you make twice the amount or half the amount, for example, of the state's average income. No chart will rank based on every possible income.

This chart only shows which State is better or worse than each other on cost of living factors. It doesn't include, taxes, how many international airports it has, what the weather is like or how far it is from family and friends, how much traffic congestion there is, what the air/water quality is, etc., all factors that feed greatly or slightly into the decision process for different people. It's just Cost of Living rankings by State useful, in my opinion, for people who want to see if costs are generally better or worse in another state compared to where they live now or costs are better or worse in two States they may be considering.

[marmac]

Laura-------thanks for your sarcasm.

As I stated, costs are paid for out of a paycheck

Comparing costs without comparing wages is meaningless.


That's like a city bragging they have the lowest cost of housing in the entire state.
If the houses are all 1960 trailer houses that statistic is meaningless.


Moderator cut: cut

[hiknapster]

My experience has been that Sperling's uses such old data that it is useless. Things quickly change.

It also can be misleading. It said in 2005 that my previous location was the best place for jobs. Yes, if you work at Bob Evans or Walmart. Not much else was there. I use to run out to buy those books, back in the 80s. Now I don't ever read it.

As far as cost of living goes, it is a small piece of the pie. It has to be weighed with amount of jobs, pay and quality of life.

Taxes and insurance are necessities. You can't eat them but you got to pay them. People in Florida with high taxes and insurance would probably agree.

[mbmouse]

Originally Posted by dlk33

The other issue is that it doesn't consider the tax situation & what the burden would be. There are so many more stats to consider when it comes to comfort of living. The best site for all information to compare is ...
sperlings best places.net. You'll find just about anything & everything you could want to there.

I beg to differ...the BEST place to compare all the information is City-Data.com. This place is much more than a forum.

[JEANNE61]

Having come from NY via WPB fla ... to a t iny town in western t n ..( pop 2005 ).. 6 mths ago ..
i was very surprised to see the cost of g roceries (a year ''before '' i moved here btw . it did nOT deter me, i fell in l ove with the environment and the people ) .. the cost of products in walmarts and Lowes .. (ONLY TWO big stores we have here )
all the above was identical to what i had paid in ny and fla .. .

Now , common sense would tell me that a small town SHOULD have cheaper prices. . IF , t hey care at all about their residents like they SAY they do .. .

I am renting f rom my brother . . and am ''fine'' financially. I am retired, on a generous pension and s.s. ) but .. .(there's always a but , isnt' there ?) if i had to r ent from a s tranger, . . at the going rate, and TRY to find a j ob .. (at 62 yrs old .. ) there is no way i would have moved here .. . because there's just nOTHING out there. .

I love my little town . but the cost of living here should NOT be identical to living in cities that have MILLIONS of people living in them ..

don't wanna rain on anybody's parade . . but that's the truth , and i'm stickin to it .. .

[LauraC]

Folks, this is a ranking chart at the state level on cost of living. If you want comparison/ranking data at a county or town level, you'd look for an individual state chart's rankings of towns/counties in the state. If you want to cover every single income level AND all possible numbers of people in a household living on that income AND cost of living to see where's the best state for you to live, I don't know where you would look.

Perhaps I threw people by suggesting how it could be used but if you want to know, for example, if Utah is cheaper than Vermont on average, for say, utility bills, a Cost of Living Chart is what you would look at.

Unrelated to the chart, why would food cost less in a small town?

[JEANNE61]

In my naviete' i actually thought that the profit margin in a small t own would be a lot less than in a big metropolis .. . Stupid of me ...