An Overview of Cost of Living in Lake Stickney, WA
Knowing the cost of living in Lake Stickney allows individuals to create a realistic budget. This helps them understand how their income will cover expenses and whether they need to make financial adjustments. The cost of living in any region can fluctuate due to various factors. To assess the cost of living consistently across different areas, a national average of 100 serves as the basis for the cost of living index. The cost of living in Lake Stickney stands at 143, marking it 43% higher than the national average.
If affordability is among your top priorities when searching for a new place to live, this area may not be the ideal fit, as the cost of living in Lake Stickney is among the most expensive in the United States. Just a minority of areas exhibit a cost of living at least 20% higher than the national average, and unfortunately, Lake Stickney falls into this category, which may not align with your goal of finding a budget-friendly living environment.
Housing costs make up a big chunk of the cost of living in Lake Stickney, and they usually eat into a large part of your take-home pay. Unfortunately, in this area, both buying a home and renting one costs 110% more than the average city. This includes stuff like home prices, rent, mortgage rates, and insurance.
The things you purchase regularly, like clothes, haircuts, movie tickets and gym memberships, can make a big dent in your budget and make up 33% of the cost of living index. Unfortunately in Lake Stickney, these items will cost you 18.7% more than what's considered the norm, making it a more expensive place to call home.
The surge in grocery costs is indeed alarming, especially when groceries make up a large portion of your monthly expenditures. Over the past two years, there has been an inflation of over 10% in grocery prices. Unfortunately, Lake Stickney does not fare better, with grocery expenses coming in at 12.4% higher than the national average.
Is Lake Stickney Affordable?
Is Lake Stickney affordable? It's a key consideration when pondering a move, as affordability often shapes your choices. The cost of living index (we discussed it earlier), coupled with housing costs and income levels, serves as the cornerstone for determining a location's affordability. Take Lake Stickney, for instance, where the median home price falls 135.1% higher than the national average, and monthly rent rates are 51.5% higher than usual. Additionally, median income levels contribute to the equation, with Lake Stickney flaunting a median household income of $70,469, 27.4% higher than the national norm.
What Factors can Influence the Cost of Living in Lake Stickney?
Transportation: If public transportation is limited or not available, residents may need to own and maintain vehicles, which can add to the cost of living. Gas, insurance, regular maintenance and potentially lease or finance payments will all need to be paid on a monthly basis. In Lake Stickney, the transportation index is 21.8% higher than the national average.
Housing: When everyone's vying for homes in popular areas, it drives up property prices and rents, making the overall cost of living surge. On the flip side, in less sought-after locales, where housing demand is low, prices tend to dip, resulting in a more economical cost of living. In Lake Stickney, the housing index comes in at 110% higher than the national average.
Subsidies: Certain cities or states may implement government subsidies or assistance programs with the goal of alleviating the cost of living pressures on their residents. These programs encompass a broad spectrum of support mechanisms, including Medicare, Medicaid, housing subsidies, low-income home energy assistance programs, school lunch programs, supplemental nutrition assistance programs, student loans, electric vehicle tax credits, affordable care act subsidies and farming subsidies. Areas offering fewer subsidies may experience a rise in their cost of living.
Where is the Data From?
The Lake Stickney cost of living data displayed above is derived from the C2ER cost of living index to provide a useful and reasonably accurate measure of living cost differences in urban areas. The index takes into account data from 300 independent researches, covering more than 60 goods and services across 6 different categories, to create an overall index for each area, with 100 being the average. The C2ER index does not include sales or income tax rates in their data, however AreaVibes does include both income and sales tax rates in the overall cost of living score for each area.
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