Phoenix ranked 16th most expensive city for common household bills

PHOENIX (3TV/CBS 5) — When it comes to paying bills, mortgage, rent and car loans are ranked the most expensive items for Phoenicians.

“What we found is out of the 50 largest cities to live in, Phoenix ranks No. 16 in terms of household expenses so it’s fairly expensive to live in compared to other cities in the U.S.,” Liz Powell told On Your Side. She’s with Doxo, an online and mobile payment service used by 8 million people nationwide.

Powell said Doxo crunched all the numbers and discovered that Phoenix residents spend a whopping 44% of their income on household bills. That’s almost half. “The national average is about 35% of income is spent on bills and in Phoenix, it’s even high so it’s a lot,” she said.

Doxo compared the top most common household bills and this is what they found for Phoenix residents. The average amount for a mortgage came to $1,283 and rent was just below that at $1,167.

Auto loans came in at the next most expensive bill at $526. Utilities was No. 4 at $438, which shouldn’t be surprising since we live in Arizona. “This is an obvious one right?” Powell said. “Utilities are usually higher in places where it’s warm in the summer and people are turning on their AC. And then cooler in the wintertime and people are turning on their heat.”

Phoenix residents also pay an average of $121 a month for health insurance and $268 for car insurance. Cable and internet come in at around $104. And for your cellphone, the average is $123. If your bills are higher, Liz says this is a good time to shop around for better deals if you can. “It’s a starting point. but there is room to negotiate and I think consumers don’t always know that.”

The most expensive cities for household bills are San Jose, California, Boston, New York, San Francisco, Washington D.C., and San Diego. You can see the full report and all of the cities here: Household-bills - doxo.

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