With the expensive holiday shopping season coming up and holiday spending expected to reach more than $980 billion, the personal-finance website WalletHub today released its 2024 Holiday Budgets by City report, with one Maryland city ranked 17th in the country out of 558 qualifying cities/areas.
Ellicott City (Howard County), the only city/area in Maryland in the top 20, was ranked 17th in the United States with a holiday budget of $3,152. Columbia (Howard County) was ranked 42nd with a budget of $2,499, followed by Montgomery County’s Germantown at #61 ($2,210) and Rockville at 66 ($2,156). Washington DC was ranked 83rd ($1,924) and Silver Spring came in at #99 ($1,810). Gaithersburg came in just outside of the top 100 at #101 with a budget of $1,805.
To help consumers avoid post-holiday regret, WalletHub used several key metrics, such as income, age, and saving-to-expense ratios, to estimate the maximum spending amounts for consumers in over 550 U.S. cities. Top 20 Cities with the Biggest Average Holiday Budgets:
| 1. Newton, MA ($4,206) | 11. Frisco, TX ($3,412) |
| 2. Sunnyvale, CA ($3,845) | 12. Naperville, IL ($3,407) |
| 3. Palo Alto, CA ($3,719) | 13. The Woodlands, TX ($3,395) |
| 4. Mountain View, CA ($3,715) | 14. Highlands Ranch, CO ($3,259) |
| 5. Milpitas, CA ($3,659) | 15. Sugar Land, TX ($3,214) |
| 6. Bellevue, WA ($3,550) | 16. Cambridge, MA ($3,169) |
| 7. Flower Mound, TX ($3,541) | 17. Ellicott City, MD ($3,152) |
| 8. Fremont, CA ($3,483) | 18. Allen, TX ($3,070) |
| 9. Carmel, IN ($3,424) | 19. Weston, FL ($3,066) |
| 10. Santa Clara, CA ($3,419) | 20. Centreville, VA ($3,055) |
For the full report, please visit:
https://wallethub.com/edu/holiday-budgets-by-city/16912