A Report Shows How Much Local Residents’ Household Income Is Sacrificed
By Zach Armstrong
Living in one of the more prominent U.S. cities, it’s no surprise that Santa Monicans pay more on expenses than an average U.S. citizen. A new report shows just how much local residents pay on monthly bills and how much of their household income is sacrificed compared with those in other U.S. residents.
In a recent report by Doxo Insights, which compared the percentage spent of household income on bills by residents in all 50 states, Californianans spend an average of 40% of their income on household bills with those in Santa Monica paying the same average. That’s compared with the U.S. average of 35%.
The report showed Santa Monica bills are $15,705 higher per year than the U.S. average, with the average Santa Monica home paying $3,355 per month on bills. This makes Santa Monica the 116th most expensive city in California and its households 64% more expensive than the U.S. average.
The average mortgage bill for a Santa Monican is $3,637, while the average rent is $2,055, average auto loan is $322, average monthly utilities is $373, average monthly auto insurance is $208 and average monthly health insurance being $151.
These results aren’t news for locals of the L.A.-area charter city. Santa Monica was recently listed as the third least affordable city in the U.S. by WalletHub’s “2023’s Most Affordable Cities for Home Buyers”. Metrics in WalletHub’s report included housing affordability, maintenance affordability, cost of Homeowner’s Insurance, cost of living, real estate tax, rent-to-price ratio and vacancy rate.
In Doxo Insights recent report, California cities paying the highest in average household bills are San Roman, Danville, Ladera Ranch, Mill Valley and Hermosa Beach. States shown to have a higher ratio of household income-to-bills are Louisiana (44%), Hawaii (43%), Florida (42%) and Mississippi (41%) while being tied with Alabama, Idaho, South Carolina, Nevada, New Mexico and Montana.
Doxo Insights’ methodology for these results included using a proprietary dataset that based on bill payments in 97% of zip codes and 45 bill pay service categories.
