Michigan Has the No. 1 Best City to Live In on a Budget of $1,500 a Month
The folks at GOBankingRates.com recently conduced a survey to find out which American cities are the best to live on a $1,500 a month budget. Specifically, the study was for retirees, considering many of them live on a fixed budget.
The study used information from the cost-of-living index from Sperling’s Best Places and, according to GoBankingRates, “applied it to customer expenditure data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics to find the average cost of living in the given city.” Other factors were taken into account, including the average rent for a one-bedroom apartment (sourced from ApartmentList), locations that went below a certain livability score on AreaVibes and more.
The results put Lansing, Michigan, at the top of the best cities in the U.S. to retire on a budget of $1,500 per month. I grew up on Lansing, so you can imagine, I was shocked to see it on the list!
“The average monthly rent in Lansing, Michigan’s state capital, is $701 — the highest of the cities on the list,” GoBankingRates says. “However, the average monthly cost of groceries, $308.45, is the second-lowest of the cities included here.”
Other cities included Lawton, Oklahoma; Lake Charles, Louisiana; St. Cloud, Minnesota; Fort Wayne, Indiana; and Odessa, Texas. Find the full list via GoBankingRates here.
A few of our favorite things about Michigan:
