Seattle Culture
What’s Your Jingle Bell Budget?
A carefree splurge or frosty finances?
By Rob Smith November 20, 2024
No way am I spending more than $2,200 during the holidays this year. Not gonna happen.
Chances are many of you will, and if you live on the Eastside, you almost certainly will. Personal finance website WalletHub analyzed a number of wealth factors to determine that Seattle residents on average will spend $2,264 this holiday season. Bellevue residents have significantly higher budgets, at $3,550.
If that sounds like a lot — and it certainly does to me — that’s not even close to residents in big-spending cities. Seattle ranks No. 58 in WalletHub’s analysis of 558 cities across the United States. Bellevue, however, ranks No. 6.
No. 1 is Newton Mass., a suburb of Boston, where residents on average will spend $4,206. The next four cities are in California: Sunnyvale, Palo Alto, Mountain View, and Milpitas.
The National Retail Federation projects that holiday spending this year will hit an all-time high, and will be about 3.5% higher than last year. The number of days between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year is the fewest since 2019.
Other Washington cities on the list are:
- Kirkland ($2,169).
- Spokane Valley ($1,437).
- Renton ($1,265).
- Kent ($1,095).
- Marysville ($1,091).
- Federal Way ($1,046).
- Vancouver ($1,030).
- Everett ($954).
- Kennewick ($856).
- Spokane ($845).
- Yakima ($807).
- Bellingham ($726).
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