Holiday Spending In New York: How We Rank

The holiday season is a time for celebration, but between the presents, decorations and festive meals, it can become an expensive time of year. New York residents have some of the highest and lowest holiday budgets in the nation, according to a new ranking by WalletHub.

The personal finance website ranked the maximum holiday budget for residents in 570 of the largest cities across the country, with New Rochelle coming in the highest in the state. The city was ranked 50th out of the nation, spending an average of $1,499.

Here are the locations in New York that made the list:

50. New Rochelle: $1,499
120. Yonkers: $1,069
147. Cheektowaga: $964
178. Brentwood: $871
219. Albany: $779
233. New York: $753
276. Buffalo: $696
426. Schenectady: $556
482. Mount Vernon: $505
516. Syracuse: $464
540. Rochester: $422

“To avoid overspending during the holidays, have a realistic budget and plan with a maximum cap that you share with a spending partner, do not be guilted by yourself or others into overspending, and shop year-round early to get both the best prices and the greatest number of options,” Scott Swan, a professor of innovation and marketing at William & Mary, said in comments accompanying the study.

Shoppers in Palo Alto, California, plan to spend the most per capita during the holiday buying season, according to the analysis. Sunnyvale, California, and Flower Mound, Texas, ranked second and third.

Residents in Providence, Rhode Island, have the lowest holiday budget in the country at just $111.

Americans are projected to spend between $727 and $730 billion during the 2019 holiday shopping season, which runs from Nov. 13 to Dec. 25.

To determine the ranking, WalletHub compared 570 of the largest cities in the United States across five key characteristics of holiday spending, including income, age, debt-to-income ratio, monthly income-to-monthly expense ratio, and savings-to-monthly spending ratio.

Here are the 10 cities with the highest holiday budgets:

1. Palo Alto, California: $3,160
2. Sunnyvale, California: $2,971
3. Flower Mound, Texas: $2,937
4. Newton, Massachusetts: $2,888
5. Mountain View, California: $2,877
6. Frisco, Texas: $2,836
7. The Woodlands, Texas: $2,833
8. Carmel, Indiana: $2,632
9. Naperville, Illinois: $2,566
10. Milpitas, California: $2,549

The full rankings are available at WalletHub.