CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Corpus Christi has a reputation for being an affordable place to live and to start a family. However, according to a new study, the price to live comfortably in our windy city has gone up quite a bit in just a year's time!
"It’s amazing that it has gone up so much even though on average wages have gone up four to five percent, TAMU-CC professor of economics Dr. Jim Lee said.
Lee said that even though people are making more, it does not feel that way when facing inflation.
"Those expenses we need the most, obviously housing, groceries and insurance for our cars have gone up a lot more than four percent and those are things we need to worry about," he said.
Data from SmartAsset claims, that in 2023, a comfortable salary for a single adult with no kids in Corpus Christi was $68,973. That number in 2024 is now $82,493 which is up exactly 19.6 percent.
But what does a comfortable living salary mean?
According to Zena Mercado with Workforce Solutions Coastal Bend, it looks different for everyone.
"According to the 50-30-20 rules, 50 percent of your income would go to necessities, 30 percent to discretionary spending and 20 percent to debt repayment," Mercado said.
She said there is currently 13,000 open jobs right now in the Coastal Bend and at Workforce Solutions they offer scholarships to pay for training to help upscale your current skills and help you land that higher-paying job.
"There are a lot of jobs available in professional skills and trades and healthcare, all of which offer competitive wages," she said.
Dr. Lee said even though Corpus Christi’s cost of living is 10 percent cheaper than the national average, we make 20 percent less than the national average.
"At least 50 percent of the families in Corpus Christi are feeling the pinch of higher living costs and rising costs on just about everything," said Lee.
Smart Asset’s study also revealed that double-income households with two kids dropped 1.7 percent with the comfortable salary in 2023 $195,770 and this year is $192,275.
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