Cities with the highest 2024 holiday budgets include...
Average holiday budgets look very different across the country, with select cities in California and Texas dominating the list of municipalities that plan to spend the most this year.
That’s according to a new analysis from personal finance company WalletHub, which calculated the maximum holiday budget for over 550 U.S. cities using five key characteristics of the population, such as income, age, and the ratio of savings to monthly expenses. (See list at end of article.)
Newton, Mass. has the highest average holiday budget, both among small cities and overall, at $4,206. WalletHub says this shouldn’t be much of a surprise, given that the Boston suburb has the third-highest median annual household income in the nation at over $185,000.
The average Newton resident has over $5,900 left every month after paying all their essential expenses, and has over $36,000 in savings. Since people in Newton are living luxurious lifestyles, WalletHub says it makes sense that they shell out quite a bit of money over the holidays.
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The medium-sized city with the highest holiday budget is Sunnyvale, Calif. at $3,845 on average, which also puts it second-highest budget among all cities in the study.
Sunnyvale, next door to San Jose, is located in one of the most educated metro areas in the country. Sunnyvale’s median household income is nearly $190,000, the second-highest in the U.S. The average Sunnyvale resident has over $23,000 in savings, and has more than $6,200 left over after paying all their essential monthly expenses. When a low debt-to-income ratio is factored in as well, Sunnyvale residents can afford to spend a lot on their holiday celebrations and gifts as a result.
San Jose has the highest holiday budget among large cities, at $2,828 on average. However, it only ranks 27th-highest among all the cities studied with many small and medium-sized cities having higher budgets. WalletHub says this makes sense given that large cities tend to have more economic diversity, and a bigger mix of affluent and non-affluent residents means a lower overall budget average.
San Jose’s median annual household income is over $136,000. The average resident has over $3,800 left over after paying their essential expenses each month, and currently holds close to $17,000 in savings.
While the typical holiday budget in San Jose of $2,828 is over $1,000 smaller than the budget in the top small and medium-sized cities, it is still large. For comparison, over 150 of the cities in the WalletHub study have holiday budgets that are below $1,000.
The top 20 cities with the biggest average holiday budgets are as follows:
- Newton, Mass. ($4,206)
- Sunnyvale, Calif. ($3,845)
- Palo Alto, Calif. ($3,719)
- Mountain View, Calif. ($3,715)
- Milpitas, Calif. ($3,659)
- Bellevue, Wash. ($3,550)
- Flower Mound, Texas ($3,541)
- Fremont, Calif. ($3,483)
- Carmel, Ind. ($3,424)
- Santa Clara, Calif. ($3,419)
- Frisco, Texas ($3,412)
- Naperville, Ill. ($3,407)
- The Woodlands, Texas ($3,395)
- Highlands Ranch, Colo. ($3,259)
- Sugar Land, Texas ($3,214)
- Cambridge, Mass. ($3,169)
- Ellicott City, Md. ($3,152)
- Allen, Texas ($3,070)
- Weston, Fla. ($3,066)
- Centreville, Va. ($3,055)
“Depending on the city, an American’s holiday budget this year can range anywhere from just over $200 to more than $4,000, taking into account residents’ income, their existing debt obligations and the cost of living,” said Chip Lupo, an analyst at WalletHub. “Regardless of how well-off you are this season, it’s important to stick to a budget that fits your financial profile so you don’t rack up unsustainable debt and end up in a bad position after the holidays.”
The full report can be found here.
