SLO County residents pay almost 30% more in bills than U.S. average, new report shows
On average, San Luis Obispo County residents pay $561 more on their monthly bills than someone living in other parts of the United States, according to new data released this week.
In a report released Tuesday by bill pay business Doxo, an analysis of household spending data showed San Luis Obispo County residents paid $2,450 per month in bills on average — 29.7% higher than the United States average of $1,889 per month.
The data, which explores the cost of various household bills across the nation, ranked the San Luis Obispo County area as the 29th most expensive out of 914 cities and metropolitan regions in the United States for bills.
However, San Luis Obispo County was actually one of the less expensive California cities cited in the report.
SLO County residents pay roughly $112 less on their monthly bills than the California average of $2,562, and significantly less than the $3,151 paid by the state’s most expensive metropolitan area, San Jose, according to the report.
SLO County residents also paid less than the neighboring Santa Barbara County region, where the average monthly cost of bills was $2,639, and the Salinas metropolitan statistical area where monthly bills cost an average of $2,859 per month.
In all, SLO County ranked 11th among the 34 California regions analyzed in the report.
California overall was the second most expensive state in the United States for bills, just behind Hawaii.
What SLO County bills are most expensive, least expensive?
The Doxo data also analyzed the average costs of individual types of household bills, including utilities, mortgages, rent, life insurance and cell phone plans.
According to the report, the most expensive local monthly bill costs were for mortgages.
About 40% of San Luis Obispo County residents are paying mortgages, according to the company. For those people, the average monthly bill comes out to $2,115 — 65% higher than the national average of $1,279.
Local monthly residential rent was also much higher in San Luis Obispo County than the national average.
According to the data, the 38% of SLO County residents who rent their homes paid an average of $1,472 per month. That’s just under 39% more than the national average of $1,062 per month, according to the report.
Other bills such as auto loans, health insurance, cable and satellite services and alarms and security services were all roughly equal to the national average.
Notably, SLO County residents appear to pay significantly less than the national average on several key monthly bills, including cell phone plans ($66 per month locally, compared to $102 nationally), utilities ($281 locally versus $316) and car insurance ($143 compared to $185).
In all, Doxo found that more than 41% of SLO County residents’ household income went to bills — which was just above the average state rate of 40%.
The report and corresponding data are available at doxo.com/insights/regional-bill-comparison.
This story was originally published October 22, 2021 at 9:07 AM.
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