TEMPLE, Texas— The Temple Economic Development Corporation (Temple EDC) today announced that Temple ranked 3rd nationally in the least expensive place for grocery items in the First Quarter 2018 Cost of Living Index. The composite cost of living index for Temple was 84.7 a ranking of 20th, compared to the national average of 100 for 263 urban areas evaluated by C2ER.
| What Do Groceries Cost?
Each quarter, C2ER collects more than 90,000 prices from communities across the US for the Cost of Living Index. With food prices a big part of the national media attention, C2ER decided to once again feature those communities with the most and least expensive food costs as measured by the grocery item index number. C2ER collects data on twenty-six items from a variety of surrogate categories to represent the grocery item component of the index. The Five Most and Least Expensive Places for Grocery Items by Index Number in the Cost of Living Index (COLI) First Quarter 2018 Average for 263 Urban Areas = 100 |
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| Most Expensive | Least Expensive | ||||||||
| Ranking | Urban Areas | Index | Ranking | Urban Areas | Index | ||||
| 1 | Honolulu HI | 168.0 | 1 | Kalamazoo MI | 78.4 | ||||
| 2 | Juneau AK | 145.4 | 2 | Waco TX | 78.4 | ||||
| 3 | New York (Manhattan) NY | 137.3 | 3 | Temple TX | 78.6 | ||||
| 4 | Anchorage AK | 134.0 | 4 | Harlingen TX | 80.8 | ||||
| 5 | Oakland CA | 130.1 | 5 | McAllen TX | 81.7 | ||||
The Temple EDC conducts quarterly surveys of the costs of the same products in the C2ER quarterly reports, this enables the organization to accurately promote the low cost of living in Temple. The composite index is based on six component categories – housing, utilities, grocery items, transportation, health care, and miscellaneous goods and services.
For further details on the COLI methodology, please visit www.coli.org/Method.
About Temple
Temple, Texas, is a community with a diverse economic base that includes healthcare, distribution and warehousing, and manufacturing as its foundation. Within 200 miles of a population of 19 million, Temple is in a strategic location that is central within the Southwest U.S. marketplace. Visit www.choosetemple.com