Western Information Office

CONTACT: Media Interviews (415) 625-2270 (415) 625-2284 Internet address: http://www.bls.gov/ro9/news.htm

BLS 10-01 FOR RELEASE: Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Consumer units^[1] (households) in the Seattle-Tacoma-Bremerton, Washington metropolitan area spent an average of $63,565 per year in 2007-2008, according to results from the Consumer Expenditure Survey (CE) release by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Regional Commissioner Richard J. Holden noted that this figure was nearly 27 percent higher than the $50,063 average expenditure level for a typical household in the United States. Although households in the Seattle area spent more than the U.S. average, they tended to allocate their dollars similarly among most of the major categories including housing. However, expenditures for personal insurance and pensions accounted for a significantly larger portion of the total budget in the Seattle area than in the United States, whereas spending on transportation and food represented a significantly smaller share. (See chart 1.)

Housing in the Seattle metropolitan area averaged $21,515 annually and was the largest expenditure category, accounting for 33.8 percent of a typical Seattle area household’s total budget. This share was not significantly different from the 34.0-percent national average. (See tables 1 and 2.) Overall, 11 of the 18 published metropolitan areas had expenditure shares for housing measurably above the U.S. average; only Houston had a lower-than-average share. (See chart 2.) Among the 18 areas, housing shares ranged from 44.1 percent in San Diego to 32.4 percent in Houston. (See table 3.)

The majority of housing expenditures in Seattle went toward shelter, 64.6 percent, which includes mortgage interest, property taxes, repairs, and rent, among other items; this was significantly above the 59.4-percent share allocated toward housing nationwide. (See table A.) In contrast, utilities, fuels, and public services expenses accounted for 16.2 percent of the housing budget locally, well below the national average of 20.9 percent. In the Seattle area, 65 percent of households owned their home compared to 67 percent for the nation.

Table A. Percent distibution of housing expenditures, United States and Seattle, 2007-2008

Category	United States	Seattle
Total Housing	100.0	100.0
Shelter	59.4	64.6
Utilities, fuels, and public services	20.9	16.2
Household operation	5.8	5.1
Housekeeping supplies	3.8	3.0
Household furnishings and equipment	10.1	11.1
Note: Columns may not add to 100 due to rounding.

At 15.2 percent of the total budget, transportation was the second-largest expenditure category in the Seattle area; this was below the national average of 17.3 percent. Among the 18 metropolitan areas nationwide, only Phoenix, Houston, and Detroit had above average transportation shares. (See chart 3.) Among the remaining areas, 10 had significantly lower shares than the U.S. average, the lowest being San Diego at 12.8 percent, followed by New York at 13.9 percent.

Of the $9,643 in annual expenditures for transportation in Seattle, 88.5 percent was spent buying and maintaining private vehicles; this compared to the national average of 94.0 percent. The remaining 11.5 percent of a typical Seattle household’s transportation budget was spent on public transit, which includes fares for taxis, buses, trains, and planes; this allocation was above the 6.0-percent average for the nation. (See table B.) Still, the average number of vehicles per household in Seattle (2.5) was higher than the national average (1.9). Among the 18 areas nationwide, public transportation expenditures accounted for more than 10 percent of local transportation budgets in 3 other areas: New York (14.2 percent), San Francisco 14.0 percent), and Washington (10.6 percent).

Table B. Percent distribution of transportation expenditures, United States and Seattle, 2007-2008

Category	United States	Seattle
Transportation	100.0	100.0
Vehicle Purchases (net outlay)	34.6	32.3
Gasoline and motor oil	29.4	27.0
Other vehicle expenses	30.0	29.2
Public Transportation	6.0	11.5
Note: Columns may not add to 100 due to rounding.

The portion of a typical Seattle consumer unit’s budget spent on food, 11.5 percent, was significantly less than the 12.6-percent U.S. average. However, among the 18 metropolitan areas, 11 had food expenditure shares that were not measurably different from the nationwide average. Detroit (14.3 percent) was the only area with an expenditure share for food significantly above that for the nation.

Households in Seattle spent $4,313, or 59.1 percent, of their food dollars on food prepared at home and the remaining 40.9 percent on food prepared away from home, such as restaurant meals, carry-out, board at school, and catered affairs. In comparison, the typical U.S. household spent 57.3 percent of its food budget on food prepared at home and 42.7 percent on food prepared away from home.

As noted, Seattle is 1 of 18 metropolitan areas nationwide for which Consumer Expenditure (CE) data are available. We encourage users interested in learning more about the Consumer Expenditure Survey to contact the West Information Office at (415) 625-2270. Metropolitan area CE data and that for the four geographic regions and the United States are available on our Web site at http://www.bls.gov/cex/tables.htm.

Additional Information

Data contained in this report are from the Consumer Expenditure Survey, which is collected on an ongoing basis by the U.S. Census Bureau for the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The CE data were averaged over a two-year period, 2007 and 2008. CE data are available for the nation, the 4 geographic regions of the country, and 18 metropolitan areas. The metropolitan area discussed in this release is Seattle-Tacoma-Bremerton, Wash., which is comprised of Island, King, Kitsap, Mason, Pierce, Skagit, Snohomish and Thurston Counties.

The survey consists of two components, a diary or recordkeeping survey, and an interview survey. The integrated data from the BLS Diary and Interview Surveys provide a complete accounting of consumer expenditures and income, which neither survey component alone is designed to do. Due to changes in the survey sample frame, metropolitan area data in this release are not directly comparable to those prior to 1996.

A consumer unit is defined as members of a household related by blood, marriage, adoption, or other legal arrangement; a single person living alone or sharing a household with others but who is financially independent; or two or more persons living together who share responsibility for at least 2 out of 3 major types of expenses – food, housing, and other expenses. The terms household or consumer unit are used interchangeably for convenience.

The expenditure data in this release should be interpreted with care. The expenditures are averages for consumer units with the specified characteristics, regardless of whether or not a specific unit incurred an expense for that specific item during the recording period. The average expenditure may be considerably lower than the expenditure by those consumer units that purchased the item. This study is not intended as a comparative cost of living survey, as neither the quantity nor the quality of goods and services has been held constant among areas. Differences may result from variations in characteristics such as consumer unit size, age, preferences, income levels, etc. However, expenditure shares, or the percentage of a consumer unit’s budget spent on a particular category, can be used to compare spending patterns across areas. Users should also keep in mind that prices for many goods and services have changed since the survey was conducted.

The CE significance tests in this release compare expenditure shares for selected expenditure categories in the United States to expenditure shares in selected metropolitan areas. Expenditure shares for housing and transportation that are above or below that for the nation after testing for significance at the 95-percent confidence interval are also identified in charts 2 and 3 for the 18 published metropolitan areas. It should be remembered that sample sizes for the metropolitan areas are much smaller than for the nation, so the U.S. estimates and year-to-year changes are more reliable than those for the metropolitan areas.

NOTE: A value that is statistically different from another does not necessarily mean that the difference has economic or practical significance. Statistical significance is concerned with the ability to make confident statements about a universe based on a sample. It is entirely possible that a large difference between two values is not significantly different statistically, while a small difference is, since both the size and heterogeneity of the sample affect the relative error of the data being tested.

Table 1. Percent distribution of average annual expenditures, United States and Seattle, Consumer Expenditure Survey, 2007-2008

Category	United States	Seattle
Average annual expenditures	$50,063	$63,565
Percent distribution	100.0	100.0
Food	12.6	11.5*
Alcoholic beverages	.9	.9
Housing	34.0	33.8
Apparel and services	3.7	4.0
Transportation	17.3	15.2*
Healthcare	5.8	5.3
Entertainment	5.5	5.9
Personal care products and services	1.2	1.2
Reading	.2	.4*
Education	2.0	1.8
Tobacco products and smoking supplies	.6	.4*
Miscellaneous	1.6	2.1
Cash contributions	3.6	5.3*
Personal insurance and pensions	10.9	12.2*
*Statistically significant difference from the U.S. average at the 95-percent confidence level. Note: Columns may not add to 100 due to rounding.

Table 2. Consumer unit characteristics and average annual expenditures, United States and Seattle, Consumer Expenditure Survey, 2007-2008

Category	United States	Seattle
Consumer unit characteristics:
Income before taxes	$63,328	$74,510
Age of reference person	49.0	48.0
Average number in consumer unit:
Persons	2.5	2.3
Children under 18	.6	.5
Persons 65 and over	.3	.2
Earners	1.3	1.3
Vehicles	1.9	2.5
Percent homeowner	67	65
Average annual expenditures	50,063	63,565
Food	6,288	7,296
Food at home	3,605	4,313
Cereals and bakery products	483	543
Meats, poultry, fish, and eggs	812	879
Dairy products	409	498
Fruits and vegetables	628	750
Other food at home	1,273	1,641
Food away from home	2,683	2,983
Alcoholic beverages	450	600
Housing	17,015	21,515
Shelter	10,103	13,890
Owned dwellings	6,745	8,883
Rented dwellings	2,663	3,950
Other lodging	694	1,057
Utilities, fuels, and public services	3,563	3,485
Household operations	991	1,103
Housekeeping supplies	647	641
Household furnishings and equipment	1,711	2,396
Apparel and services	1,841	2,548
Transportation	8,680	9,643
Vehicle purchases (net outlay)	2,999	3,113
Gasoline and motor oil	2,550	2,608
Other vehicle expenses	2,607	2,816
Public transportation	525	1,107
Healthcare	2,914	3,373
Entertainment	2,767	3,748
Personal care products and services	602	752
Reading	117	245
Education	996	1,125
Tobacco products and smoking supplies	320	282
Miscellaneous	824	1,321
Cash contributions	1,779	3,365
Personal insurance and pensions	5,471	7,750
Life and other personal insurance	313	406
Pensions and Social Security	5,158	7,345

Table 3. Percent share of average annual expenditures for housing, food, and transportation, United States and 18 metropolitan areas, Consumer Expenditure Survey, 2007-2008

Area	Housing	Food	Transportation
United States	34.0	12.6	17.3
Atlanta	37.0*	12.9	15.7
Baltimore	38.5*	11.4*	14.8*
Boston	37.0*	13.3	14.4*
Chicago	36.0*	12.4	15.4*
Cleveland	34.9	11.7	17.2
Dallas	33.5	11.7	19.1
Detroit	33.0	14.3*	19.1*
Houston	32.4*	12.3	19.5*
Los Angeles	38.3*	12.9	15.6*
Miami	39.2*	12.0	18.1
Minneapolis	34.1	12.2	16.6
New York	39.6*	12.2	13.9*
Philadelphia	37.5*	11.0*	15.5*
Phoenix	34.3	11.3*	20.5*
San Diego	44.1*	10.9*	12.8*
San Francisco	37.9*	12.2	15.4*
Seattle	33.8	11.5*	15.2*
Washington	37.0*	11.5*	14.8*
*Statistically significant difference from the U.S. average at the 95-percent confidence level.

*Note: Statistical significance testing at the 95-percent confidence interval.

*Note: Statistical significance testing at the 95-percent confidence interval.

^[1]See the Additional Information for the definition of a consumer unit. The terms consumer unit and household are used interchangeably throughout the text for convenience.

 

Last Modified Date: January 21, 2010