If you live in the Seattle area of Washington State and feel like holiday spending runs a little higher here, you’re not imagining it. In fact, two urban hubs in the Seattle area just ranked among the top 10 biggest holiday budgets in the entire country. We’re not talking about Seattle itself but two other Washington cities nearby. Quick: can you guess which ones?
Read on for all the details!
WalletHub recently dug into the numbers for more than 550 cities, looking at income, age, debt levels, and how expenses stack up against savings. Their goal? Estimate a “maximum holiday budget” for each place. And Washington has two cities in the top tier: Kirkland snagged the No. 5 spot with a whopping $3,866 budget, while Bellevue came in at No. 10 with the slightly lower number of $3,603.
Here are the top 10 U.S. cities with the highest holiday budgets:
- Palo Alto, CA
- Mountain View, CA
- Newton, MA
- Flower Mound, TX
- Kirkland, WA
- Milpitas, CA
- Sunnyvale, CA
- Santa Clara, CA
- Redwood City, CA
- Bellevue, WA
Six out of the top 10 cities are in California. Washington was the only other state that had more than one city included in the top 10. The highest budget in the nation belongs to Palo Alto, California, at $4,485. On the opposite end of the spectrum is Elizabeth, New Jersey, where WalletHub estimated a much leaner $212.
So where does The Emerald City fall? Seattle ranked 78th, with an estimated holiday budget of $2,225—not as high as Kirkland and Bellevue but still well above the national average of $1,552. Note that this figure accounts for holiday travel and entertainment as well as gifts.
This year, Americans are actually planning to dial things back a bit. A PwC survey shows holiday spending is expected to drop for the first time since 2020—about 5% less than last year and 10% less than in 2024. Even so, we’re still talking big numbers: the National Retail Federation predicts U.S. shoppers will collectively cross the $1 trillion mark for the first time.
As WalletHub analyst Chip Lupo put it, depending on where you live, your holiday budget “can range anywhere from just over $200 to more than $4,000.” And this year, Seattle-area residents are clearly on the higher end of that spectrum.