Typical US household spends $24k on bills per year: report
Detroit has the lowest monthly household bill costs, according to the report
The typical U.S. household spends just over $24,000 on bills per year, according to a report released Monday by the online bill pay service Doxo.
Doxo said its "50 Largest U.S. Cities Household Spend Report 2022" found that the typical U.S. household spends $24,032 annually on 10 bill categories, including mortgage; rent; auto loans; utilities; auto insurance; health insurance; cable and internet; mobile phone; alarm and security; and life insurance. That figure has gone up about 6% from the prior year and amounts to roughly a third of 2021's median U.S. household income of $70,784.
"Consumers are indeed feeling the strain as they deal with the consequences of months of inflation impacting nearly every category of household spending," Doxo vice president of marketing and consumer services Jim Kreyenhagen said in a statement. (iStock / iStock)
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"Consumers are indeed feeling the strain as they deal with the consequences of months of inflation impacting nearly every category of household spending," Jim Kreyenhagen, Doxo's vice president of marketing and consumer services, said in a statement.
As measured by the consumer price index, inflation rose 8.3% in August from the prior year and 0.1% from July, according to Labor Department data released in mid-September.
Shelter costs increased 0.7% from July and 6.2% year-over-year, with rent costs climbing 6.7% from a year ago and homeowners' rent equivalent going up 6.3% in the same period. While some energy prices went down in August, the price of electricity climbed 15.8% from a year ago and 1.1% from July, according to the latest CPI data.
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The personal consumption expenditures index, the Federal Reserve's preferred inflation gauge, went up as well, climbing 6.2% in August from a year ago and 0.3% from July, the Commerce Department said last week.
While some energy prices went down in August, the price of electricity climbed 15.8% from a year ago and 1.1% from July, according to the latest CPI data. (iStock)
Doxo's report also ranked the 50 largest cities, based on the number of households, in terms of which one's residents spent the most on bills each month. The bill pay service noted that it included rent and mortgages in the 10 bill categories so the "total number will generally be higher than that of a household that only pays one of those types of bills, or a homeowner household."
The city with the highest monthly bill expense per household of the 50 was San Jose, Cailfornia, at $3,248, according to Doxo. Behind it were New York ($3,059), Boston ($2,963), San Francisco ($2,946) and San Diego ($2,946).
The personal consumption expenditures index, the Federal Reserve's preferred inflation gauge, climbed 6.2% in August from a year ago and 0.3% from July, according to the Commerce Department. (iStock)
Detroit, at $1,634, had the lowest monthly bill expenses among the 50 largest cities, Doxo said. Cleveland, Ohio, ranked second lowest with $1,655 and El Paso, Texas, ranked third at $1,675. Albuquerque, New Mexico ($1,687) and Memphis, Tennessee ($1,689) rounded out the five least expensive of the U.S.'s 50 largest cities, according to Doxo.
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Doxo said it sourced all the category-specific data except rent and mortgages from bill payment activity on its platform. The data for those two categories came from the Census Bureau, according to Doxo.