Living in L.A. Is Costly

A hypothetical “middle management” family moving from San Antonio, Tex., to Los Angeles would find its living costs increasing by about 16%, largely because of the much higher costs of housing and health care here, according to the results of a first-quarter comparative price study completed recently by the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce.

San Antonio’s living costs fall close to a national average compiled by the American Chamber of Commerce Research Assn. That group, which receives quarterly data from chambers across the country, measures relative price levels for 59 different consumer goods ranging from housing prices to groceries to haircuts.

The national average is expressed as a base level of 100, and variations among individual cities are expressed as percentage points added to or subtracted from the base number. At 16.6% above the average, the cost differential in Los Angeles is expressed as 116.6.

The goods and services included in the survey are considered typical purchases for a hypothetical family of two working adults, two children and an income of at least $30,000 a year, according to Jack Kyser, economist for the Los Angeles chamber.

Los Angeles-area housing costs came in at 162.3, while health-care costs were calculated at 132.7. Utility costs, however, come in at only 63.5, less than two-thirds of the national average.

Los Angeles ranked as the second most expensive metropolitan area in the country among the 14 surveyed; New York was first with a figure of 134.4, while Indianapolis ranked 14th at 96.9.

The results are skewed, Kyser pointed out, because the list does not include San Francisco, which usually comes out ahead of Los Angeles. Since the figures are compiled voluntarily by local Chamber of Commerce staffs--and doing so is quite time consuming, Kyser said--some areas disappear from the list, only to reappear the next quarter. Also missing in the first quarter was the Anaheim/Orange County metropolitan area.

In other instances, cities won’t report because with higher-than-usual costs they “feel they won’t look that good,” so they don’t want to spend the time pricing items, Kyser said.

“For a long time Los Angeles didn’t price, and my reaction was, ‘Why not? We aren’t as bad as a lot of people would make us out to be,’ ” Kyser said. “After all, high housing prices means there’s a lot of demand.”