New Jersey Trails Hawaii, Washington DC, New York and California for lowest buying power
the staff of the Ridgewoood blog
Ridgewood NJ, according to the Tax Foundation prices for the same goods are often much cheaper in the more rural areas of states like Missouri or Ohio than they are around large cities in states like New York or California. As a result, the same amount of cash can buy you comparatively more in a low-price state than in a high-price state.
The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis has been measuring this phenomenon for four years now; it recently published its data for prices in 2017. Using this data, we have adjusted the value of $100 to show how much it buys you in each state.
You may have already figured that regional price differences are strikingly large, but they may be even bigger than you realize. For example real purchasing power is 35 percent greater in Mississippi than it is in New York.
In other words, by this measure, if you have $50,000 in after-tax income in Mississippi, you would need after-tax earnings of $67,500 in New York just to afford the same overall standard of living.
Ok , so the bayou may not be for you ,but five state may offer you the most buying power.
Places where $100 is worth the most:
- Mississippi ($116.69)
- Arkansas ($115.61)
- Alabama ($115.34)
- West Virginia ($114.94)
- Kentucky ($113.77)
Places where $100 is worth the least:
- Hawaii ($84.39)
- Washington, D.C. ($85.54)
- New York ($86.36)
- California ($87.11)
- New Jersey ($88.57)
