Chattanooga ranked in the bottom quartile of cities for the recommended holiday spending for an average household this year, primarily due to Chattanooga's relatively lower average income and higher average debt-to-income and savings-to-monthly expense levels. The Nashville suburb of Franklin, which has the highest savings-to-monthly expenses ratio of any city in America at 217.67 percent, ranked the best for holiday spending of any Tennessee city.
1. Franklin - $1,252
2. Murfreesboro - $639
3. Nashville - $632
4. Clarksville - $608
5. Chattanooga - $491
6. Johnson City - $491
7. Jackson - $467
8. Memphis - $467
9. Knoxville - $434
Source: WalletHub analysis calculates the maximum holiday budget for each of 570 U.S. cities using income, age, debt-to-income ratio, monthly income-to-monthly expenses ratio and savings-to-monthly expenses ratio. Nationwide, the highest city was Naperville, Ill., with a holiday budget of $2,381 per household and the lowest was in Flint, Mich., at $69 per household. Data used to create this ranking were collected from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Federal Student Aid, Freddie Mac, Federal Reserve and TransUnion.