Study: Petersburg residents spend more than half their income on household bills
This article originally appeared on Yahoo News
By Joyce Chu
Petersburg is spending nearly half of its income on household bills.
On average, bills cost $1,676 a month, including $964 for rent, $400 for an auto loan, $88 for the phone bill and $323 for utilities according to doxoINSIGHTS.
Petersburg spends less compared to other localities in the Tri-Cities like Colonial heights, which has an average of $1,883 in bills, Chesterfield, which spends $2,536 a month, and Hopewell, which is at $1692. Chester spends $2,808 a month on bills.
However, the bills only amount to 32% of household income for Chesterfield, 39% of the household income for Colonial Heights, and 43% for Chester. Hopewell’s household bills comes out to be about 47% of their income.
The national average for bills cost $2,003, and Virginia’s average is $2,249. Hopewell and Petersburg come in as some of the lowest spending localities recorded in the state, ranking 72 and 73 out of 91, respectively. Chester and Chesterfield is on the upper half, at 25 and 33, and Colonial Heights is at 59.