Area called second-least expensive

Bryan-College Station ranks behind Paris in Texas, fifth in nation
By John Kirsch
Eagle Staff Writer

Bryan-College Station ranks as Texas second-least expensive community among 29 cities surveyed in the state, according to a survey released this week by the Bryan-College Station Economic Development Corporation.

The city of Paris, Texas, ranked as least expensive among the 29 cities.

The cost of living index for the first quarter of 1998 was conducted by the American Chamber of commerce Researchers Association.

The survey covered 60 separate consumer purchase items. Personal pricing checks were made at as many as eight locations for each item surveyed, totaling 500 retail inquiries.

Consumer areas surveyed included grocery items, housing, utilities, transportation, health care and other goods and services.

The survey ranks Bryan-College Station as the fifth least expensive U.S. community among 329 cities surveyed nationally. Using 100 percent as the average cost of living index for the 329 cities surveyed, Bryan-College Station rnaked 87 percent. In contrast, Boston ranked 134.5 percent.

Gary Basinger, business development manager for the Bryan-College Station Chamber of Commerce, said the survey confirms earlier studies showing the area as relatively inexpensive.

Basinger said that may be largely due to the number of Texas A&M University and Blinn College students living in the Bryan-College Station area.

"If youre a business, you want to get the student business and you have to be price competitive," Basinger said.

This is the second time in a week that the Bryan-College Station area placed on a national ranking list.

Money magazine recently ranked Bryan-College Station 37^th on a list of the best small Southern metropolitan areas.

The magazine used "livability factors" such as clean water, low crime, good public schools and low property taxes to rank cities. It ranked Washington, D.C. as the best large city in the eastern United States.

On the cost-of-living survey the other Texas cities surveyed beginning with the thrid-least expensive city, were: Odessa, San Antonio, Waco, Texarkana, Weatherford, Midland, San Angelo, Amarillo, Wichita Falls, Greenville, Lubbock, Brownsville, Abilene, San Marcos, McAllen, Victoria, Tyler, Seguin, Houston, Conroe, El Paso, Beaumont, Killeen, Austin, Longview, Dallas and Lufkin.