The average household in the Bay Area spends about 38 percent more money than the average American household, according to a report released Thursday by the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Bay Area households, defined in the report as residents of Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco or San Mateo counties, spent an average of $68,966 per year in 2007 and 2008, higher than the roughly $50,000 spent by the average U.S. household.
The types of things Bay Area residents spent their money on also differed from the average American, with more money spent on housing and less on transportation, according to the report.
Housing made up 37.9 percent of a typical household budget in the region, compared to the 33.9 percent national average.
Bay Area residents spent a lesser portion of their money on transportation than the average American, while spending more on public transportation than almost all the other major metropolitan areas in the country that were tracked for the report.
Local residents spent 15.4 percent of their money on transportation during the two-year period of the report, compared to a national average of 17.3 percent.
Only New York spent a higher percentage, 14.2 percent, on public transportation than the Bay Area's 14.0 percent among the 18 major metropolitan areas in the report.
