Austin Residents Biggest Spenders (apartments, mortgage, credit card)

[llkltk]

I felt this way since the economy went south. The stores are always crowded, and everyone is always spending.

Austinites biggest spenders in U.S. - Austin Business Journal:

[thesonofgray]

Just saw this article floating around.

I find it hard to believe. The numbers just don't seem to jive, since the per capita income is just over $30k. Does not compute....

[HappyTexan]

Well it's not me..I've cut back in spending.

[Trainwreck20]

It is probably my wife .

[intmd8r]

So, one has to wonder how in the world these numbers were compiled, because it just doesn't make sense at all.

Let's say I bought a new car that cost $50,000. Let's say the payments are $500/mo. To me, the $6,000 in payments should be recorded as money spent. Maybe they're recording the $50,000?

At any rate, something is just not right here.

[Jennibc]

Originally Posted by intmd8r

So, one has to wonder how in the world these numbers were compiled, because it just doesn't make sense at all.

Let's say I bought a new car that cost $50,000. Let's say the payments are $500/mo. To me, the $6,000 in payments should be recorded as money spent. Maybe they're recording the $50,000?

At any rate, something is just not right here.

They would record that as a $50,000 purchase. Just like they will look at the total when you swipe your credit card even if you don't pay it off monthly.

I think our huge college aged population adds to this because it is not comprised of savers.

I wonder about the methodology though. Do they just take total receipts inside the city and then divide by residents? If so, do they consider dorm dwellers residents? If not, that would add a lot of additional spending into the mix but then take out number of residents which in turn would drive up the average. Plus there are a lot of twenty something, auto purchasers, that too is going to drive up the average.

[hoffdano]

More from the source of the study:

http://www.bundle.com/everybodysmone...02_103_104_105

That is just Dec 2009 (1 month). You can choose any month and see what the numbers are.

The numbers are per household, not per person. Still seems high to me.

[jdevelop2]

Its' because the statistic is an average. Averages or means can be skewed heavily. Take the following example: Suppose a town has 100 residents. 99 of those residents spend $20,000 shopping in one year but 1 resident buys a Gulfstream Jet for $35,000,000. The following statistics apply:

Average amount each person spent shopping: $366,140

Median amount: $20,000


Means in statistics can be very misleading.

[mark311]

Originally Posted by hoffdano

The numbers are per household, not per person. Still seems high to me.

That makes a little more sense if they are doing it by household. You have to figure a lot of UT college students are in 2 bedroom apartments with 2 students in each bedroom. That's 4 students per household. Tuition and food alone run them each $10K per year so that's $40K right there for the household without adding in all their other expenses. Without looking at all of the factors like these within the study, it's difficult to tell how accurate it really is. Apparently "spending" includes everything except for the mortgage or rent. I guess property taxes, school tuition, etc. are all included as spending then. jdevelop2's point above can definitely skew the average as well.

[thesonofgray]

Originally Posted by jdevelop2

Its' because the statistic is an average. Averages or means can be skewed heavily. Take the following example: Suppose a town has 100 residents. 99 of those residents spend $20,000 shopping in one year but 1 resident buys a Gulfstream Jet for $35,000,000. The following statistics apply:

Average amount each person spent shopping: $366,140

Median amount: $20,000


Means in statistics can be very misleading.

Yes (and so can medians for that matter), but it doesn't make sense because the average household income is below the average spending per household. They're both averages, so they'd reflect such imbalances equally.

The college thing makes a lot of sense, though. Students spend A LOT of money, but have little to no income - their money comes from somewhere and someone else (oh do I miss that ). So that could go towards explaining the oddities, unless a lot of average Austinities are buying Gulfstream jets.