Study finds WA is 5th most expensive place to live in country
Washington shoppers facing rising grocery prices
A new study says Washington state is the fifth most expensive place to live in the nation, and it's getting harder for people to make the numbers work.
SEATTLE - A new study shows Washington state is the fifth most expensive place to live in the nation, and it's getting harder for people to make the numbers work.
If you've been to the gas pump or the grocery store recently, you know it firsthand.
FOX 13 Seattle took a closer look at the study and heard from shoppers in the area.
People we talked with said it is getting more difficult to make ends meet. They're changing what they buy, and they're looking for sales.
Locals react to rocketing prices
What they're saying:
"It's just been climbing and climbing. There hasn't been any relief for anybody," shopper Rebecca Muscatell said.
Outside Fred Meyer in Seattle's Ballard neighborhood, Muscatell knows you need a strategy to save.
A new study from the Washington Roundtable and Kinetic West said Washington state is the fifth most expensive place in America, with prices rising faster than any other state and twice as fast as California.
We asked shopper Elizabeth Olson if she was surprised by the study.
"I am. I am," she said.
Olson said her shopping habits are changing.
"I'm giving up my brand favorites to go to the lower price," she said.
The study compares consumer spending over a 10-year period looking back to 2015.
Why is Washington so expensive?
By the numbers:
Housing and utility costs grew 62%, transportation spending grew 51%, and grocery bills grew 50%.
Washington Roundtable President Rachel Smith said it's not just Seattle, Tacoma, or Bellevue.
"Unbelievably, four other Washington MSAs, Bremerton, Mount Vernon, Olympia, and Vancouver, not what you would think about, rank in the top 10% nationally," she told FOX 13 Seattle.
Smith said state leaders need to reconsider tax policies, including the B&O tax, to reduce costs passed on to consumers.
The study found Washington state saw a net loss of more than 55,000 people between 2021 and 2023, with many headed somewhere cheaper.
It shows essentials make up 59% of spending, meaning every dollar matters even more to shoppers today.
"Safeway will do a lot of stuff where they have $30 off, things like that. It's really shopping the sales, having to really be proactive," Muscatell said.
At least one woman told us the key to savings is to take advantage of the deals at several stores and their digital offerings. She said the days of shopping at just one place are long over.
The study is now in its second phase, according to Smith, and will examine how impacts on small and medium-sized businesses hit consumers the hardest.
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The Source: Information in this story comes from original reporting by FOX 13 Seattle reporter Dan Griffin.