Big spenders
This Austin suburb tops the list of biggest holiday spenders in U.S.

Santa Claus is coming to one Central Texas town in a big way. A new study by personal finance website WalletHub estimates the typical holiday shopping budget in Cedar Park will be $2,263 this year — the 14th highest among U.S. cities.
To come up with its ranking for holiday spending per person, WalletHub compared 570 U.S. cities across five metrics: income, age, debt-to-income ratio, monthly income-to-expense ratio, and monthly savings-to-expense ratio.
In terms of income, Cedar Park exceeds the median amount per household in Texas, meaning there’s presumably more money in the bank to buy holiday gifts. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the median household income for Cedar Park stood at $96,612 in 2017. By comparison, the median household income in Texas was $57,051.
While Cedar Park is the only Austin-area city to top the list, five other Texas cities are in this year’s top 30 for holiday spending:
- No. 3 — Flower Mound ($2,937)
- No. 6 — Frisco ($2,836)
- No. 7 — The Woodlands ($2,833)
- No. 13 — Sugar Land ($2,386)
- No. 17 — Allen ($2,212)
Not surprisingly, a couple of those cities bear some of the state’s highest per-household burdens for credit card debt. According to personal finance website ValuePenguin, the average credit card debt in Flower Mound was $11,715 in 2017, compared with $6,948 statewide, while Allen was at $12,101.