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 |
