Website suggests holiday shopping budgets will top $500 in Las Vegas Valley

The Thanksgiving feast is on its way, and the year-end holiday shopping season is close behind. Financial advice website WalletHub suggests that average holiday budgets will exceed $500 valleywide this year.

In its annual holiday budget by city survey, released Monday, WalletHub put Henderson residents’ suggested average shopping budgets at $720; North Las Vegans’ holiday budgets at $608 and Las Vegans’ holiday budgets at $541. Henderson ranked 207th on the 570-city list; North Las Vegas ranked 286th; Las Vegas ranked 371st.

In a methodology explanation, WalletHub said its analysts used five key metrics — income, age, debt-to-income ratio; monthly-income-to-monthly-expenses ratio and savings-to-monthly-expenses ratio. An algorithm calculates the projected spending averages. The budgets are suggested, WalletHub said, because they reflect what consumers can spend without incurring unsafe debt.

Palo Alto, California, topped the list with an average suggested holiday budget of $2,821. The smallest average forecast holiday budget was for Brockton, Massachusetts, $71.

WalletHub’s consumer profile for Henderson showed average monthly income of $5,336, monthly expenses of $3,928; average savings of $5,737; and an average age of 42.5. The average income-to-monthly-expenses ratio was 1.36, and the average savings-to-monthly-expenses ratio was 1.46.

Las Vegas showed average monthly income of $4,140, monthly expenses of $3,299; average savings of $4,450; and an average age of 37½. The average income-to-monthly-expenses ratio was 1.26, and the average savings-to-monthly-expenses ratio was 1.35.

For North Las Vegas, WalletHub showed average monthly income of $4,496; average monthly expenses of $3,413; average savings of $4,833; and an average age of 32.2. The savings-to-monthly-expense ratio was 1.42, and the monthly-income-to-monthly expense ratio was 1.32.

Nationally, WalletHub analyst Jill Gonzalez said, rising debt-to-income ratios in most survey cities mean consumers are racking up debt. WalletHub projects that Americans will end 2016 with more than $80 million in additional credit card debt alone. She linked this trend to an improving economy.

“Consumer confidence has been on the rise for a few years now,” Gonzalez said in an email, “especially as unemployment has dropped significantly and wages have begun to increase.”

The debt accumulation trend shows in all three valley cities, too, she said. Henderson’s suggested holiday spending budget dropped 34.6 percent from 2015’s $1,073; North Las Vegas’ suggested budget dropped 30.4 percent from 2015’s $874; Las Vegas’ suggested budget fell 35.5 percent from 2015’s $839.

A higher debt-to-income sparked the drop in suggested budgets, she said. In 2015, Las Vegas’ debt-to-income ratio was 27.9 percent; this year it reached 50.1 percent. North Las Vegas’ average debt-to-income ratio was 32.5 percent; it reached 54.9 percent this year. Henderson’s debt-to-income ratio was 32.4 percent in 2015 and rose to 45 percent this year.

In its October consumer survey, the National Retail Federation forecast Americans will spend $935.58 on average this year for holiday season gifts, food, flowers, decorations and greeting cards, down 1.2 percent from a record $952.58 in 2015.

The federation forecast that total U.S. holiday season spending will increase 3.6 percent from a year earlier, to $655.8 billion. The federation forecasts online sales to increase 7 to 10 percent, possibly reaching $117 billion.

To see the complete list, visit http://bit.ly/1SA9gVb.

Contact Matthew Crowley at mcrowley@reviewjournal.com. Follow @copyjockey on Twitter.