In a recent post, we explored the Cost of Living Index (COLI) published by the Council for Community and Economic Research. This index features a base of 100, corresponding to a national average cost of living. While you can reference more of the findings in the earlier post, we highlight here some of the specific cost-of-living differences in the metro Atlanta area compared to other large metros.
We have taken the 25 largest metro areas in the US and selected the 3 highest COLI scores (New York / Manhattan, San Francisco, Los Angeles-Long Beach) and the 3 lowest COLI scores (Minneapolis, San Antonio, and St. Louis), and compared them with Atlanta. Note that our metro’s composite index score of 100.4 is almost exactly the national average and is much closer in value to the lowest 3 scores than the 3 highest scores in the tables below.
The items in the tables below have been given conditional formatting relative to each column. That is, the color gradients do not persist across columns. The tables below are taken from the full slide deck (which can be downloaded here), the first of which shows common grocery / beverage items:
Of the items listed, only milk and bananas are relative cheaper in metro Atlanta (corresponding to green cells) than those other metro areas, with eggs being of more intermediate pricing as compared with the other 6 metro areas. Wine, perhaps surprisingly, is listed as the most relatively expensive grocery item in Atlanta of all those shown above, with an average unit price of $13.52, which is over a dollar higher than the next highest unit price (San Francisco at $12.50) and $1.41 higher than the national average.
Regarding medical expenses, only a typical doctor’s visit is rated as lower in metro Atlanta than the other metro areas shown, with prescription drug costs appearing second-highest among the metros listed, trailing only Los Angeles-Long Beach. Given the above data, it might be well worth your time to drive to St. Louis for your next doctor or optometrist’s visit!
Finally, we compare the relative prices for miscellaneous goods and services. Once again, Atlanta mostly comes out between the 6 metro areas shown, with the notable exception of energy costs. While we won’t speculate as to why this might be the case, we simply note here that the energy costs are on par with the only other Sunbelt metro area on this list (San Antonio, with a unit cost of $137.32) and, staggeringly, are less than half the energy cost of the San Francisco metro area and well below the national average of $192.98.