A low cost of living is an attractive feature of life in Starke County and northern/central Indiana. Cost of living data is not directly available for Starke County, but data for the labor market region of north central/west Indiana is available. Cost of living for this region and Starke County are comparable and likely conservative, as costs of housing are likely to be less in Starke County than in the region as a whole.
The cost of living in the Starke County region relative to representative communities in the Midwest and the nation are presented in Table 24. For the two cost of living sources shown, using South Bend in the region as a reference point, the cost of living is considerably higher in Midwest metropolitan areas such as Chicago and other regions of the nation. The cost of living is 20% to 100% higher in Chicago, depending upon the index used, and for a city like Sacramento, California, the cost of living is 9% to 22% higher.
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Table 24 - COST OF LIVING COMPARISONS | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starke County, Indiana Region (representative communities) |
Cost of Living (1) | Cost of Living (1) with South Bend=100.0 | Cost of Living (2) | Cost of Living (2) with South Bend=100.0 |
| Elkhart, IN | 50,074 | 104.84 | 50,477 | 105.69 |
| Gary, IN | 47,011 | 98.43 | 48,223 | 100.97 |
| South Bend, IN | 47,761 | 100.00 | 47,761 | 100.00 |
| Midwest Comparisons (representative communities) |
||||
| Chicago, IL | 57,509 | 120.41 | 97,354 | 203.84 |
| Peoria, IL | 46,537 | 97.44 | 53,599 | 112.22 |
| Lansing, MI | 49,643 | 103.94 | 52,824 | 110.62 |
| National Comparisons (representative communities) |
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| Sacramento, CA | 52,236 | 109.37 | 58,730 | 122.97 |
| Atlanta, GA | 55,517 | 116.24 | 65,936 | 138.12 |
| Charlotte, NC | 52,725 | 110.39 | 56,030 | 117.31 |
| Phoenix/Scottsdale, AZ | 52,533 | 109.99 | 64,026 | 134.05 |
Notes: for each occupation, the index is calculated by dividing the Wage and Salary of the community by the Wage and Salary for South Bend. Source: Economic Research Institute, The Geographic Reference Report - 2001, Redmond, Washington. | ||||
Note that for Peoria, Illinois, and Lansing, Michigan, that the cost of living differential is much smaller. In general, such mid sized communities in the Midwest (along with northwest/central Indiana) offer a lower cost of living than the selected higher growth regions of the west and east coasts, and south.
Lower housing costs are also a benefit of life in Starke County and region. Housing value/cost data is not directly available for Starke County, but data for the region in Table 25 indicate sharply lower housing costs for the region. For example, the median sales price of a home in South Bend at $92,800 is considerably less than in Chicago ($198,500) and the price of a home in Sacramento ($174,000). Again, the costs of housing in the mid sized communities in the Midwest, along with the Starke County region, are generally lower than the faster growth regions of the nation.