The Maximum Holiday Budgets for Different Cities in Iowa

The holiday season is, no doubt, an expensive time of year for everybody, but some U.S. cities have a higher budget than others!

The website WalletHub decided to do a little research into the holiday budgets of Americans in a whole bunch of different cities. The article says:

"To help consumers avoid post-holiday regret, WalletHub calculated the maximum holiday budget for each of 570 U.S. cities using five key characteristics of the population, such as income, age, and savings-to-monthly expenses ratio."

The 570 cities are listed on the site in order of the highest maximum budget to the lowest maximum budget. Here are the rankings for all of the Iowa cities on the list:

• 159 - Davenport, IA - $1,016
• 161 - Cedar Rapids, IA - $1,008
• 176 - Des Moines, IA - $963
• 181 - Sioux City, IA - $956
• 195 - Waterloo, IA - $929
• 215 - Ames, IA - $890
• 437 - Iowa City, IA - $563

The amount for the city of Cedar Rapids seems a little high to me, but, then again, I don't have any children to buy for (aside from my nephews). The only people that I absolutely HAVE to get gifts for are my mom, my brother, and Brain. I do tend to go a little over budget, though. I just love gift-giving so much!

The COVID-19 pandemic is going to be a big factor in how this year's holidays are celebrated. The article says that merchants still expect an increase in sales, but believe that online purchases will be more popular. With so many people's financial situations impacted by the coronavirus, I'm not sure what to expect. You can read more from WalletHub's study HERE.