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How Far $100 Goes In Each State And Major Metropolitan Area

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Often, when people want to improve their finances, they either cut costs or increase their income.

A map by the Tax Foundation shows another unique way to boost your bottom line: Move to a place where your dollar will go further.

The map below shows the real purchasing power of $100. At one extreme is Mississippi, where $100 can actually buy you $115.74 worth of goods.  At the other extreme is, no, not New York or California, but Hawaii, where the same $100 will only buy you $85.32 worth of goods.

Some of the other places where your $100 is more valuable are: Arkansas ($114.16), Alabama ($113.51), Missouri ($113.51) and South Dakota ($113.38).

The states where your $100 has low purchasing power are the usual suspects: Washington, D.C. ($84.60), New York ($86.66), New Jersey ($87.64), and California ($88.57).

The one state where a dollar is closest actually buying a dollar's worth of goods is Illinois, where $100 gets you $99.40.

But considering that the whole entire state of New York is nowhere near as expensive as the little island of Manhattan, you may be wondering what the value of a dollar is if you break out major cities like New York City, San Francisco and Los Angeles as their own areas.

The foundation also created an interactive graphic showing the data that way, available on their website, but here is the purchasing power of $100 in these major cities. Again, surprisingly, Honolulu edges out the New York metro area as the most expensive in the country :

  • Urban Honolulu, Hawaii: $81.37
  • New York/Newark/Jersey City metropolitan area: $81.83
  • San Jose/Sunnyvale/Santa Clara: $81.97
  • Santa Cruz/Watsonville: $82.37
  • San Francisco/Oakland/Hayward: $82.44
  • Washington/Arlington/Alexandria: $83.06
  • Los Angeles/Long Beach/Anaheim: $84.60

The impact of purchasing power is so great that, while we typically think of New Yorkers as raking in the big bucks,  Kansas residents actually have higher income than New Yorkers once you adjust for purchasing power:

So, next time you find yourself clamping down on your budget or mulling requesting a raise, consider whether you'd be willing to make the ultimate budget-boosting move -- a literal move to a non-metropolitan area of Mississippi, where $100 will buy you $120.63 worth of goods.

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