Planning to move to, say, Tuscaloosa, Ala., or perhaps Anchorage, Alaska, and want to know how the cost of living in the Morgantown area matches up?
Using an online calculator, you can compare Morgantown to about 300 other U.S. municipalities at a Web site provided by the West Virginia University College of Business and Economics.
The calculator at http://www.be.wvu.edu/ is based on a survey of the prices of 60 goods and services. An economist in the colleges Bureau of Business and Economic Research shops for a broad list of itemsfrom T-bone steaks to hair cutsthree times a year. The findings are submitted to ACCRA , a national organization, for tabulation and comparison.
In Anchorage, by the way, a T-bone steak will cost you $11.20. In Tuscaloosa, its $9.04. In Morgantown, the price is $8.15. And utilities will actually cost you a little more in Morgantown than in Anchorage; housing is a lot more if you move from Tuscaloosa to Morgantown (see charts below).
In recognition of Morgantowns booming economy and our research in this area, we have launched a special area of our Web site to reflect data and analysis of this region,said Tom S. Witt, BBER director.Our redesigned Web site now features comprehensive data profiles, economic forecasts and the ACCRA cost-of-living calculator.
From the ACCRA cost-of-living calculator
If you move from Anchorage to Morgantown:
- Groceries will cost 31.484 percent less
- Housing will cost 21.649 percent less
- Utilities will cost 2.099 percent more
- Transportation will cost 4.962 percent less
- Health will cost 21.798 percent less
If you move from Tuscaloosa to Morgantown:
- Groceries will cost 4.979 percent less
- Housing will cost 38.342 percent more
- Utilities will cost 8.956 percent more
- Transportation will cost 3.555 percent more
- Health will cost 5.632 percent more
If you move from Baltimore to Morgantown:
- Groceries will cost 7.544 percent less
- Housing will cost 33.482 percent less
- Utilities will cost 20.064 percent less
- Transportation will cost 4.139 percent less
- Health will cost 0.342 percent less