The city with the largest number of credit card owners was Port St. Lucie, Florida, followed by Nashua, New Hampshire; Irvine, California; Garden Grove, California; and Cape Coral, Florida, WalletHub’s Wednesday survey showed.
“Port St. Lucie, FL ranks first because residents own a lot of cards and are adding new accounts quickly,” WalletHub editor John Kiernan said. “Port St. Lucie residents opened more credit cards than people in any other city during Q4 2023, at 1.45 cards on average. People in Port St. Lucie own an average of 6.39 credit cards, which is more than the average in all but three other cities, so it’s especially important for residents to ensure they make all their monthly payments on time and avoid overspending.”
Wallethub conducted the survey to determine which areas might be financially vulnerable this year, as credit card debt continues to climb due to inflation and record-high interest rates.
“There isn’t a magic number of credit cards you should have in your wallet. It’s good to own multiple cards if you can manage them well, by paying on time, keeping your credit utilization low and waiting at least six months between applications,” Kiernan said. “However, if you’re opening new cards simply to spend beyond your means, you’ll quickly find many cards hard to manage.”
The report measured the average number of cards owned per person and the average number of new cards opened per person in Q4 2023, as well as the percent change in both from Q4 2022.
Residents of Grand Rapids, Michigan; Honolulu, Hawaii; Wichita, Kansas; Huntington, West Virginia; Portland, Maine; Des Moines, Iowa; South Burlington, Vermont; Lincoln, Nebraska; Pearl City, Hawaii; and Washington, D.C. had the least credit cards.
Tempe is home to Tempe Town Lake, Arizona’s second most popular public attraction, drawing 2.4 million visitors and generating nearly $2 billion in economic impact since its opening.
Technology, restaurants, retail, and hospitality are all rapidly growing in Tempe.
“We have a lot of corporate offices along Rio Salado. So, you’ve got a lot of larger players like Caravana, State Farm, and Open Door,” Colin Diaz, president, and CEO of the Tempe Chamber of Commerce, told Fox 10. “We still have a decent amount of health care. There’s financial tech that’s growing as well, manufacturing is still a pretty good space.”
In 2021, Tempe had a population of 179,000 with a median age of 29.6 and a median household income of $64,080.
Elizabeth Troutman is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send her news tips using this link.
Wyoming was the state with the largest increase in auto loan debt, followed by South Dakota, Texas, Delaware, Minnesota, North Dakota, Colorado, Florida, Alaska, and tenth, Arizona.
“Wyoming residents have a very high average auto loan balance, at $22,104, and reached that number after increasing their average by nearly 1.9% between Q3 2023 and Q4 2023,” John Kiernan, editor of WalletHub, said. “Wyoming residents pay out a whopping $543 per month toward their auto loan debt, on average.”
The states with the smallest increase included Ohio, Nevada, Oregon, West Virginia, Michigan, Connecticut, Montana, Utah, Missouri, and Rhode Island.
Kiernan said from Q3 2023 to Q4 2023, residents of most states either had a less than 1% increase in their average auto loan balance or saw a decrease in the average.
“A few states had more dramatic increases, as high as around 3%, which suggests that people in some states are more affected by inflation in car prices or are biting off more than they can chew when it comes to loans,” Kiernan said.
Elizabeth Troutman is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send her news tips using this link.
The Grand Canyon State is one of the best in the country for starting a business.
According to a recently released report from WalletHub, Arizona ranked sixth in the nation for entrepreneurs looking to start a business. The 2024 Best & Worst States to Start a Business report had Utah as the number-one ranked state in the country and Rhode Island as the last-ranked. Two of Arizona’s other neighbors, Nevada and Colorado, came in at fifth and seventh, respectively.
Cassandra Happe, a WalletHub Analyst, said, “Starting a business is a difficult and risky process, but where you live can highly influence your chances of success. Before establishing a business in any location, make sure to do research to ensure it’s an ideal place for your customer base, has enough labor and supplier availability, and suits your needs when it comes to financing.”
Happe pointed to Utah’s great “access to loans” and “largest annual employment growth in the country” as two major indicators for its first place showing in the report.
The report factored average growth in number of small businesses, labor costs, availability of human capital, average length of work week (in hours), and cost of living. Arizona ranked sixth and seventh in small business growth and human capital, respectively; yet fell to twenty-fifth in both labor costs and work week hours, and twenty-seventh in cost of living.
In a separate WalletHub study, Best Large Cities to Start a Business, Scottsdale and Phoenix appeared in the top-30, at twenty-seventh and twenty-eighth, respectively. Three east valley cities, Gilbert, Chandler, and Mesa, clocked in at thirty-first, thirty-fifth, and thirty-eighth, respectively. Glendale and Tucson were noted at forty-sixth and fifty-first, respectively.
WalletHub gave several tips to men and women contemplating a business start-up. Those suggestions were as follows:
Thoroughly Research Your Market
Create a Solid Business Plan
Focus on a Unique Value Proposition
Choose a City that Fits Your Needs Well
Manage Finances Wisely
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
Gov. Katie Hobbs’ proposed education funding plan is “dangerous and unsustainable” according to State Treasurer Kimberly Yee.
Hobbs’ plan, if passed by the state legislature, would renew Proposition 123 for another decade and increase the state land trust fund to nearly nine percent. In a statement on Tuesday, the treasurer accused the governor of irresponsible mismanagement of taxpayer funds amid record inflation.
“Governor Hobbs wants to raid the land trust to cover for her mismanagement of the state budget and overzealous spending plans in an ever-increasing inflationary environment,” said Yee.
Yee warned that Hobbs’ plan would violate the Enabling Act, the terms under which Arizona achieved statehood in 1910. She recommended a four to five percent distribution, declaring Hobbs’ vision “unfeasible” based on past performance.
“My office has not reported a 10-year return over 8.9 percent in nearly two years. Over the span of the last 10 years, only 32 months have had a 10-year return over 8.9 percent,” said Yee.
Governor Hobbs' proposal to increase Prop 123 distributions to 8.9% is dangerous and unsustainable.
— Arizona Treasurer Kimberly Yee (@AZTreasurerYee) January 16, 2024
That’s something the governor acknowledged in her announcement of her plan: the average 10-year annualized return amounts to just over seven percent.
Proposition 123, the Arizona Education Finance Amendment, was a voter-approved 2016 constitutional amendment to increase education funding by $3.5 billion over a decade using monies from the general fund and state land trust fund. Yee oversees the land trust fund.
Although Yee declared the funding plan wasn’t sustainable, Hobbs claimed that there were ample funds going unused.
“[We shouldn’t] let billions of dollars accrue in a bank account and do nothing to address our immediate needs,” said Hobbs.
Hobbs marketed her renewal plan as a means of increasing education funding without raising taxes.
“The choice is clear: we can give our children a quality education or let billions of dollars stand idle without addressing our immediate needs,” said Hobbs.
My Prop 123 renewal plan will increase compensation for educators & make schools safer for our kids – all without raising taxes.
The choice is clear: we can give our children a quality education or let billions of dollars stand idle without addressing our immediate needs.
Under the governor’s plan based on a decade-long average distribution, 2.5 percent will continue general school funding ($257 million), 4.4 percent will raise educator compensation ($347 million), 1.5 percent will increase support staff compensation ($118 million), and .5 percent will invest in school capital for safety and security ($39 million).
State Sen. Christine Marsh (D-LD04) is sponsoring the bill with the governor’s plan. Marsh also sits on the Senate Education Committee.
“Renewing and expanding this vital funding source for our schools is crucial to ensuring Arizona’s students receive the high quality education they deserve,” said Marsh.
Today, @GovernorHobbs announced her #Prop123 renewal plan, which will expand on the current Prop 123 funding to continue building a quality public education for the more than 90% of Arizona children who attend public schools.
Rep. David Schweikert, R-Ariz., urged Congress to “take our nation’s fiscal health seriously” in response to the growing national debt.
Schweikert’s Daily Debt Monitor shows the federal government’s gross national debt increasing by $839 billion already this fiscal year, which began in October.
So far this fiscal year (3 months in), the total national debt has increased by $839 billion. That's ~$8.65 billion per day, and just over $100,000 per second.
I implore my brothers and sisters in Congress to take our nation's fiscal health seriously. pic.twitter.com/7XACzQ0mjM
“That’s ~$8.65 billion per day, and just over $100,000 per second,” Schweikert tweeted.
“I implore my brothers and sisters in Congress to take our nation’s fiscal health seriously,” the congressman continued.
The national debt has increased by more than $360 million per hour, $6 million per minute, and $100,00 per second this fiscal year.
The total national debt as of Jan. 4 was more than $34 trillion, compared to around $31 trillion on Jan. 4, 2023. This includes both intragovernmental and publicly held debt. Between 2023 and 2024, there was an increase in debt of more than $7 billion per day and $300 million per hour.
The national debt hit the $34 trillion record this month. The Congressional Budget Office’s January 2020 projections didn’t expect gross federal debt to surpass $34 trillion until fiscal year 2029.
The Congressional Budget Office expects the debt to only get worse in coming years. An estimate shows America’s entitlement spending, mandatory spending, and net interest payments on the debt will exceed the government’s total revenue by the early 2030s.
In June, Republican lawmakers and the White House agreed to temporarily lift the nation’s debt limit, making an agreement that lasts until January 2025.
The Congressional Budget Office estimated in its 30-year outlook last June that publicly held debt will be equal to a record 181% of American economic activity by 2053.
Elizabeth Troutman is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send her news tips using this link.
The state of Arizona is among the top ten in the nation for having the most credit cards.
According to a new study by WalletHub, Arizonans rank ninth among all states concerning credit card ownership.
The average Arizonan has an average of five credit cards. The average American has around four open credit cards, per their data.
There was an average of between one and two credit cards opened by Arizonans in the third quarter of 2023, with the average number of credit cards owned ballooning to between five and six that quarter.
Compared to last year, that marked a six to seven percent decrease in the average number of new credit cards opened. However, there was an overall increase of nearly seven percent in the number of average credit cards owned by Arizonans in the same time frame.
Outranking Arizona, in order for most to least, were: Alaska, New Jersey, Nevada, Wyoming, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, and California.
The combined high ranking and increase in credit card ownership in the state may be another symptom of the poor health of the economy.
Last November, Arizona was among the states facing the highest inflation rates in the nation. According to the latest Consumer Price Index data, prices have gone down by less than half a percent over the past month, but up by over three percent compared to one year ago.
Over the last quarter of 2023, Arizona’s cost of living ranked 36th in affordability. RentCafe data reflects Arizona’s cost of living to be around six percent higher than the national average: 20 percent higher in housing, two percent lower in utilities, two percent higher in food, four percent lower in health care, even in transportation, and one percent higher in goods and services.
Earlier this month, CBS News reported that Arizonans would have to spend over $13,000 more annually to maintain the same basic cost-of-living standards from last year. That’s over 16 percent higher than the national estimation: over $11,000.
In September, the National Low Income Housing Coalition reflected in its annual report that the average Arizonan would need to make nearly $30 an hour to afford a two-bedroom rental home. That translates to 86 hours at the $13.85 minimum wage, or 71 hours for a one-bedroom rental home.
Yet, Arizona was ranked among the top 20 in the nation for business.
Coupled with these facts, credit card debt ballooned to a record high of nearly $1.1 trillion in the third quarter of this year, part of a record high of over $17 trillion of overall household debt. Per a previous study by WalletHub over the summer, Arizona ranked 10th for credit card debt.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
