Thursday, March 28, 2024

Just how expensive is it to live in Virginia Beach? It’s No. 7 on this list

Graphic showing the 10 cities where the cost of living increased the most from 2017 to 2018 (Southside Daily photo/Courtesy of GOBankingRates.com)
Graphic showing the 10 cities where the cost of living increased the most from 2017 to 2018 (Southside Daily photo/Courtesy of GOBankingRates.com)

VIRGINIA BEACH — What do you find between Fort Worth, Texas and Sacramento, California?

The answer: Virginia Beach, Virginia.

At least you do on a recent listing by GOBankingRates.com of the U.S. cities where cost of living is rising the fastest.

Virginia Beach comes in at No. 7 on the list of the 50 cities that experienced the biggest increase in cost of living from 2017 to 2018. Colorado Springs, Colorado topped it.

According to GOBankingRates, their study “looked at the amount needed to pay for necessities such as food, rent, utilities, transportation and health care, as well as the amount one should budget toward savings and discretionary spending.

Those costs were then consolidated into a ‘live comfortably’ income to determine the year-over-year cost of living increase in each city.”

The study found that Virginia Beach had the second-highest utility costs of all the cities surveyed.

Of course, cost of living comparisons can vary, depending on the methodology used.

The City of Virginia Beach’s Economic Development Office has its own cost-of-living index online, which uses the more traditional scale of 100 – with 100 representing the national average. Anything over 100 is above the national average, while anything under it is below.

Another more extensive listing by Expatistan online has Virginia Beach as the 48th most expensive city in North America (43rd in the U.S.) in which to live.

GOBankingRates is a “personal finance resource designed to make learning about money and managing your finances more fun and less intimidating. With a focus on how money intersects with your personal goals, travel, politics, celebrity, food and events, we create articles and videos to educate, engage and entertain.”

They estimate that their content reaches an audience of about 1 billion readers across GOBankingRates, and through partnerships with MSN Money, Yahoo Finance, Time/Money, The Street, CBS News, Motley Fool, CNBC and others.

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