Phoenix is an Affordable City...

According to the Greater Phoenix Chamber of Commerce, the Greater Phoenix area continues to be one of the most affordable major U.S. ciites for professionals and managers to live.  This information was contained in a quarterly study just released by the national community and economic research organization ACCRA.

Greater Phoenix is one of only eight of the 27 largest cities in the U.S. where the cost of living is below the national average.  The Greater Phoenix cost of living index stood at 97.1 in the first quarter of 2003.  That ranked the community 22nd amoung those 27 large cities.  San Francisco, with an index of 181.3, topped the list.  Houston ranked as the most affordable major city with an index of 90.4.  The average cost of living is given an index number of 100.  THe indexes of all other cities indicate their degree of variance from that average.  ACCRA compiles cost of living data from 211 metropolitan areas in the U.S. as part of this ongoing study.  The index includes some 60 items for which data is collected quarterly.  Those 60 are then merged into six major component areas from which the index is then derived.

Residents of the Greater Phoenix area benefit from housing costs significantly below the national average (Phoenix housing index = 85.7).  Health Care & Services, however, cost more in the Phoneix area than the national average (Phoenix health care index - 110.6).