Lower-than-average cost of living in Grand Forks used by the Economic Development Corp. to promote the city
May 14—GRAND FORKS — Grand Forks' lower-than-average cost of living is a big part of the promotional efforts of the Grand Forks Region Economic Development Corporation.
In the last quarter of 2022, Grand Forks had a composite index score of 94%, which is six points lower than the national average. That data is listed on the EDC's website within the
interactive economic indicators dashboard
for anyone to view.
Mark Maliskey, the marketing and communications manager with the EDC, said having the data available is helpful when promoting the city.
"We utilize this data a lot to promote Grand Forks to businesses that are looking to relocate here and show them that the overall cost of living, or just the cost of things, is cheaper or more affordable here in the Grand Forks region," Maliskey said.
The data is also used for various EDC initiatives, including the workforce recruitment campaign "Way Cooler Than You Think."
The overall composite index score is determined by six factors: cost of groceries, housing, transportation, health care, utilities and other miscellaneous goods and services. The EDC is responsible for collecting the Grand Forks metropolitan statistical area data that the Council for Community Economic Research (C2ER) then compiles into a cost-of-living index.
That statistical data looks at the cost of a variety of grocery items, such as a dozen eggs, steak and a gallon of milk. Information also is collected on housing, including the prices of a variously sized homes and apartments.
Transportation-specific information looks at the cost of gas, an oil change, a bus fare and more. Health care costs are assessed on routine visit costs for an optometrist, doctor, dentist and a specific pharmacy prescription at individual offices or businesses in the city.
The information for each category is collected and compiled into the C2ER's cost-of-living index four times a year. In the fourth quarter of 2022, Grand Forks scored 96.8% for groceries, 111.2% for health care, 90.2% for housing, 91.6% for miscellaneous goods, 98.60% for transportation and 96.8% for utilities.
A composite index score on Grand Forks can be found all the way back to 2016, when the EDC started participating in the collection of the data. Maliskey said factors related to keeping down costs in Grand Forks are mostly out of the control of the EDC, which has a focus on primary sector business.
In the past seven years, Grand Forks has maintained a composite index score under 100. The highest score was 97.7% in 2017, but the rest of the years have stayed between a score of 94% and 96%.
Other cities — including Bismarck/Mandan, Minot, the St. Cloud metro and the Minneapolis metro — are listed as comparison cities on the EDC's dashboard. Maliskey said the EDC has always used those cities as comparisons, since they are well known in the region.
"And there's obviously different factors that are outside of our control, like population and overall different industries," he said. "But those are some of the ones that we can easily pull."
While Maliskey said the information collected isn't used to specifically track inflation, the information is still able to show how Grand Forks is doing in comparison to other cities in the region.
In the future, Maliskey said the hope is to maintain the cost of living in Grand Forks to continue attracting and retaining workforce to the region.
"Especially right now when there are cities across the country that are becoming quickly unaffordable and you see those population shifts outside of those metropolitan areas, it's nice to be able to really cite and have a resource to say that Grand Forks is a more affordable place to live and it'll provide you a really great quality of life," he said.
Quarter one data for 2023 is anticipated to become available to the EDC at the end of the month.
