Congrats Kalamazoo You Were Ranked 3rd Least Expensive To Live For Professionals
A group called The Council for Community and Economic Research (C2ER) publishes a quarterly Cost of Living Index and their second quarter 2019 index placed the city of Kalamazoo Michigan the 3rd least expensive place for professionals to live in the United States
That certainly is great news for Kalamazoo and the state of Michigan. According to their study:
The Cost of Living Index measures regional differences in the cost of consumer goods and services, excluding taxes and non-consumer expenditures, for professional and managerial households in the top income quintile. It is based on more than 90,000 prices covering 60 different items for which prices are collected quarterly by chambers of commerce, economic development organizations, and university applied economic centers in each participating urban area. Small differences should not be interpreted as showing a measurable difference.
C2ER informs us that their composite index is based on the following six component categories:
- Housing
- Utilities
- grocery items
- transportation
- health care
- and miscellaneous goods and services.
Sure other larger cities in Michigan such as Grand Rapids, Lansing and Detroit may have more things to do but it is much cheaper to live in Kalamazoo than those cities. You can always drive to those cities and enjoy their amenities while paying a lot less to live in Kalamazoo.
Other Michigan cities that made their list are:
- Niles-Benton Harbor came in at 34th least expensive
- Grand Rapids-Wyoming MI Metro ranked 171st least expensive
- Detroit-Dearborn-Livonia MI Metro ranked 189th least expensive
The following is from the The Council for Community and Economic Research (C2ER) most recent quarterly Cost of Living Index: