Top Holiday Spending In Virginia Ranked By City

VIRGINIA — The holiday season is under way, and shoppers across Virginia are checking items off their lists. Personal finance website WalletHub compared the average budgets of 570 cities across the country.

To determine the ranking, WalletHub considered the following factors: income, age. debt-to-income ratio, monthly income-to-monthly expenses ratio and savings-to-monthly expenses ratio.

Flower Mound, Texas had the highest budget in the country at $3,427. Miami, Florida, meanwhile, was the lowest at just $115. One Virginia city was in the top 20 for holiday spending.

Arlington, Alexandria, Centreville, Richmond and Norwalk were among the Virginia communities included in the ranking.

Arlington was the highest, ranking at number 18 overall at $2,434. Alexandria was not far behind at $2,054, ranking at number 32.

Other Virginia cities ranked are: Centreville came in at No. 41 with a budget of $1,892; Chesapeake was No. 173 on the list with $1,082; Virginia Beach placed No. 184 with a budget of $1,057; Suffolk was next at No. 198 with $1,030; Hampton was close behind at No. 359 and a budget of $792; Newport News was No. 395 at $756; Norfolk ranked No. 407 with $740; Portsmouth right behind at No. 408 at $740; and Richmond at No. 472 with $677.

Jared Watson, an assistant professor of marketing at New York University, said that "we can expect a rise in spending as people look for ways to inject excitement into the more mundane routines, we have formed due to the pandemic."

"To avoid overspending, it might be easiest to use a commitment device," Watson suggested. "I would recommend either putting your allocated budget on a prepaid VISA or holding it in cash, separate from any other cash you might carry ... When you run out, if you try to overspend, you have to consciously acknowledge that you have depleted your budget, which should add enough friction to the decision to stop some people from violating their goal."

With reporting by Rachel Nunes, Patch Staff.