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A new report that compares the cost for housing, utilities, grocery items, transportation, health care, and miscellaneous goods and services for metropolitan areas across the United States finds that St. Louis is the most affordable of America’s 25 most populous metropolitan areas.
“St. Louis is resurgent, and one of the main reasons is that we have world class amenities, arts, food, and culture and a cost of living that literally can’t be matched by any other major metro in America,” said Jason Hall, CEO of Greater St. Louis, Inc.
The 15-county bi-state St. Louis metropolitan area enjoys a significantly lower cost of living compared to U.S. averages, especially for an area its size. With 100 serving as the average score for metro areas, the overall composite score for St. Louis is 86.3, compared to New York City (Manhattan), which came in at 228, San Francisco, which scored 179, and Chicago, which scored 120. St. Louis scored particularly well for housing (74.1), transportation (90.3), and health care (88.9) costs.
GSL Leads Information Gathering for St. Louis
The Cost of Living Index, published by the Council for Community and Economic Research, is based on more than 90,000 prices covering 60 different items for which prices are collected three times per year by chambers of commerce, economic development organizations, and university applied economic centers in each participating urban area.
Compiling the data requires countless hours of research into different types and locations of housing, comparing the cost of food and clothing items at stores around each region, and gathering other data online. And for more than 15 years, that work has been done by Tim Alexander, Senior Director of Business Research and Analysis for Greater St. Louis, Inc.
“This data is critical for businesses to use in their hiring and for attracting talent to St. Louis,” said Alexander. “St. Louis is consistently among the most affordable markets, if not the most affordable market in the country, and our work overseeing collection of this data help us tell that story to a national audience.”