The study, which ranked towns based on cost of living and median household income, placed Morristown second on the list.Vianella Burns, Patch StaffMORRISTOWN, NJ — With rising living costs across the country, Morristown stands out as one of the most affordable towns in the U.S., according to a recent study.A ...
The study, which ranked towns based on cost of living and median household income, placed Morristown second on the list.
Vianella Burns, Patch Staff
MORRISTOWN, NJ — With rising living costs across the country, Morristown stands out as one of the most affordable towns in the U.S., according to a recent study.
A new report from The Motley Fool, an investment guidance website, ranked Morristown as the second most affordable city to live in, behind only McKinney, Texas, a suburb of Dallas-Fort Worth.
To identify the most affordable places to live, The Motley Fool compared median household income to cost-of-living data across cities in the U.S. The report found that Morristown has a cost of living of $79,899 and a median household income of $115,409.
"The small town of 20,000 is located 20 miles west of Newark and 30 miles west of New York City. Its cost of living is slightly above the national average, but that's more than offset by the median household income there being 41% above the national median," Jack Caporal, research director at The Motley Fool wrote.
According to the report, housing costs in Morristown are above the national average, with housing expenses 30% higher. However, costs for utilities, transportation, and healthcare are all close to the national average.
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The cost-of-living index for each city was determined using data from the Council for Community and Economic Research's Q4 2024 Annual Average Cost of Living Index, which tracks 61 goods and services across 254 urban areas, according to The Motley Fool.
To estimate the cost of living, each city's cost-of-living index score was multiplied by the median annual household expenditure in the U.S., yielding an estimate of median expenses per household. Median income data was determined by the 2024 American Community Survey, while household expenditure data was taken from the 2024 Consumer Expenditure Survey.
The income-to-expense ratio was then calculated by dividing the city's median household income by its estimated cost of living. A higher ratio signifies greater affordability, reflecting a higher income relative to the cost of living.
Other cities that ranked highly in the report include Edmond, OK, Midland, TX, Joliet, IL, and Atlanta, GA.