With consumer prices skyrocketing 8.3% in the 12 months through August, the prices you pay for your bills are likely going higher.
Doxo, a bill-payment-management service, fleshed out statistics for bill payment across the country. It looked at the 50 biggest cities by number of households.
And it tallied bills for the 10 most common categories, including mortgage payments, rent, auto loans, utilities, auto insurance, cell phones, health insurance, cable and Internet, life insurance and alarms/security.
The average combined monthly cost for U.S. household bills in these categories is $2,003 a month, or $24,032 per year.
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Biggest Monthly Bills
The biggest monthly bill totals among the 50 cities were:
1. San Jose: $3,248
2. New York City: $3,059
3. Boston: $2,963
4. San Francisco: $2,946
5. San Diego: $2,689
6. Washington, D.C.: $2,686
7. Los Angeles: $2,672
8. Seattle: $2,572
9. Miami: $2,482
10. Austin: $2,447
The cheapest 10 cities for monthly bills were
1. Detroit: $1,634
2. Cleveland: $1,655
3. El Paso: $1,675
4. Albuquerque: $1,687
5. Memphis: $1,689
6. Dayton: $1,700
7. Kansas City, Mo.: $1,754
8. Rochester: $1,772
9. Oklahoma City: $1,779
10 Cincinnati: $1,786.
In terms of categories, Americans spend:
· $853 billion a year on mortgages. Average monthly bill: $1,368
· $616 billion on rent. Average monthly bill: $1,129
· $493 billion on auto loans. Average monthly bill: $433
· $399 billion on utilities. Average monthly bill: $328
· $250 billion on auto insurance. Average monthly bill: $196
· $166 billion cell phones. Average monthly bill: $113
· $146 billion health insurance. Average monthly bill: $123
· $146 billion on cable and Internet. Average monthly bill: $114
· $35 billion on life insurance. Average monthly bill: $82
· $20 billion on alarms/security. Average monthly bill: $84.
Favorite Cities
Meanwhile, Virginia Beach, Va., came out on top among the 50 most populous cities in a survey of 1,000 Americans conducted by Clever Real Estate’s Home Bay information service. A total of 21% of respondents listed Virginia Beach in their top five.
“Virginia Beach may not have the fame of other beach towns, such as Miami or San Diego, but with 35 miles of coastline, fascinating museums, and plenty of fresh food, it has many of the same great things to do for a fraction of the cost,” a report of the survey findings said.
Virginia Beach is the only city in the top five most desirable that has a regional price parity (96) below the national average (100), the study said.
Regional price parities measure the differences in price levels across cities and states and are expressed as a percentage of the overall national price level.
Here’s a full list of the top 10 cities:
1. Virginia Beach, Va.
2. Seattle
3. San Diego
4. Los Angeles
5. San Francisco
6. Phoenix
7. Denver
8. Miami
9. Nashville, Tenn.
10. Tampa, Fla.
