Living It Up
In
Mississippi, you can live it up instead of paying it out for day-to-day
living expenses. You can take what you save on housing, utilities, health
care and taxes, and spend it on recreation, travel or investments.
Just
to give you an example, let's look up Hattiesburg, one of our Certified
Retirement Cities, in the ACCRA Cost of Living Index: Comparative Data
for 311 Urban Areas.
According to the data submitted for Fourth Quarter, 1999, the average cost of living in Hattiesburg is 5.7% less than the national cost of living. Housing prices are 8.7% below the national average, and health care costs are 11.1% less.
You could rent an attractive 950-square-foot, two-bedroom apartment for $570 a month. Or you could purchase an 1,800-square-foot new house on an 8,000-square-foot lot for $133,121 - paying only $722 a month in principal and interest, assuming 25% downpayment. Utilities average around $101 a month. The following chart compares Hattiesburg to cities throughout the nation based on the composite cost-of-living index.
| Hattiesburg, MS | 94.3 | U.S. Average | 100.0 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Asheville, NC | 103.8 | Minneapolis, MN | 106.3 |
| Atlanta, GA | 104.3 | New York, NY | 240.1 |
| Austin, TX | 105.0 | New Haven, CT | 125.0 |
| Boston, MA | 136.9 | Olympia, WA | 106.4 |
| Burlington, VT | 115.1 | Philadelphia, PA | 116.2 |
| Charleston, SC | 103.0 | Phoenix, AZ | 102.4 |
| Chicago, IL PMSA | 117.9 | Portland, OR | 111.7 |
| Cleveland, OH | 110.3 | Richmond, VA | 104.8 |
| Dallas, TX | 100.3 | Salt Lake City, UT | 106.5 |
| Denver, CO | 110.3 | Santa Fe, NM | 113.6 |
| Helena, MT | 104.3 | Tallahassee, FL | 109.7 |
| Laramie, WY | 103.4 | Washington, D.C. | 131.6 |
| Las Vegas, NV | 106.4 | Wilmington, NC | 102.6 |
| Los Angeles, CA | 123.0 | Wilmington, DE | 109.7 |
    |
     |