MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Living in Morgantown is going to cost you a little bit more versus living in other areas of the state. According to new research from the West Virginia University Bureau of Business and Economic Research the cost of living in Morgantown was 3.2 percent higher than the national average in 2014. The higher cost of living was mainly driven by the higher housing market in the Morgantown area.
“Several other categories are below the national average, groceries, utilities, transportation are all below the national average,” explained John Deskins, director of the BBER, which is housed within the WVU College of Business and Economics.
Housing prices in Morgantown came in 13 percent above the overall index. Housing prices rose 2.5 percent relative to the United States in 2014 in comparison with 2013.
Health care costs in Morgantown rose above the national average in 2014 for the first time in more than five years. Since 2009, health care prices in Morgantown have been as much as 10 percent below the national average. However, in the third quarter of 2014 health care prices rose sharply, increasing to nearly 1 percent above the national average.
“In recent years, Morgantown has enjoyed low health care costs relative to other parts of the country,” said John Deskins, director of the BBER, which is housed within the WVU College of Business and Economics. “This research indicates that health care costs may be increasing faster in Morgantown than elsewhere in the nation.”
The report also examines how the cost of living in Morgantown compares to that of several other cities across the United States. Morgantown’s cost of living is higher than in several other university cities, such as Columbus, Ohio; Knoxville, Tennessee; Lexington, Kentucky; and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. However, the cost of living in Morgantown is below that of most major U.S. metropolitan areas.
The survey data are used to calculate a cost of living index that measures a city’s relative cost of living in comparison to the national average. The survey included six categories, including groceries, housing, utilities, transportation, health care and miscellaneous purchases. These categories are then combined into a formula that creates a composite score for each city.