People living in big cities spend half of their paycheck on housing and transportation. Where does the rest of it go?
SmartAsset broke down the average housing, transportation, and living costs for residents of the 16 largest cities in the U.S.
Across the board, housing and transportation chewed up about half 50 percent of the average person’s annual budget, usually at a 35 percent/15 percent split between the two expenses, respectively. But, those shares varied in some markets, as New Yorkers spend 40 percent of their income on housing and only 13 percent on transportation. Houston residents, however, spend 20 percent of their income on transportation, and 32 percent on housing (New York City is very dense, while Houston sprawls).
SmartAsset also found that food expenses don’t correlate to different levels of income (the more affluent don’t spend more on food, for instance). Also, the markets varied on non-essential costs.
In discretionary categories – think things like reading, alcohol and tobacco – we saw the largest differences in spending. For example, the average Baltimore household spends 250% more on reading than the average Miami household does. This translates to a difference of about $200 per year.
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