San Antonio has a cheaper cost of living than average
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The cost of living in San Antonio remains below average in many areas — except for health care, according to a recent analysis.
Driving the news: Each quarter, the Council for Community and Economic Research assembles a cost-of-living index looking at categories like housing, groceries and transportation, Axios' Alex Fitzpatrick and Kavya Beheraj report.
How it works: An index value of 100 represents the national average cost of living across 269 cities (not metro areas).
- If a city has a value over 100, its cost of living is higher than average. Under 100 is lower than average.
By the numbers: San Antonio's cost-of-living index value, as of the third quarter of 2023, was 91.8.
- San Antonio's most expensive category was health care (105.3).
- The least expensive were housing (80.4) and utilities (84.4).
Zoom out: Dallas and Plano are the only two Texas cities with a higher cost of living than the U.S. average, with higher overall costs than notoriously expensive Austin.
Meanwhile, Texans in McAllen (80.2) and Amarillo (84.4) enjoy the state's lowest cost of living.
Of note: Because the list of participating cities changes each quarter, the cost-of-living index can't be used to measure inflation — but other indicators suggest that higher prices are certainly sticking around.
- In fact, Texas is among the top states for high inflation stress, per a recent report from the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.