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November 18, 2012

Norman ranks second least expensive city to live

Transcript Staff The Norman Transcript

NORMAN — The 2012 Cost of Living Index ranked Norman as the second list expensive city to live in the U.S.. Norman was right behind top-ranked Harlingen, Texas and was followed by Ardmore, Okla. The Cost of Living Index is published quarterly by The Council for Community and Economic Research.

The national average for COLI is 100 percent. Norman comes in at 80.9 percent compared to the country’s most expensive city, New York (Manhattan), at 229.6 percent.

Participation in the COLI was made possible by the Norman Economic Development Coalition, which collected prices of key consumer goods and services in the Norman community. The Norman Economic Development Coalition has been collecting and sharing this data since 2005.

“Norman has such a high quality of life it is surprising the city is so affordable; this will be a great tool to assist us in our recruiting efforts,” said Don Wood, executive director of Norman Economic Development Coalition.

The COLI works by comparing prices from city-to-city based on consumer goods and services but excluding taxes and non-consumer expenditures. Key categories are housing, utilities, grocery items, transportation, health care and miscellaneous goods and services.

The Council for Community and Economic Research is a nonprofit founded in 1961. They work to enhance data availability, data quality and promote learning about regional economic analytic methods. For more information visit c2er.org.

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