Transcript

Hi, I’m Scott Manley.  I’m the Director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at the Langdale College of Business at Valdosta State University.  The Center for Business and Economic Research services VSU’s 41 county service region and we conduct applies research and we provide information and assistance to the business community as well as to the economic development community.

We have a number of publications that we put out each quarter; for instance, we do our Cost of Living Index, which is a comparison of the cost of living in Valdosta and Lowndes County to other metropolitan areas around the United States.  Those costs are inputted in to a database and we actually go out and survey businesses, go to stores, look at the cost of groceries, look at the cost of housing.  We look at the cost of fuel, the cost of utilizes, and we input that information in to a database where it’s aggregated.  And when that information is aggregated we then get a report, which we prepare specifically for the Valdosta and Lowndes County area.

We publish that report each quarter and that gives people information about how much does it cost to live in Valdosta relative to other areas within the United States.  A lot of people get confused by the Cost of Living Index because they think its some measure of inflation, but it’s actually not an inflation report.  It’s actually an index where we’re comparing the cost of the various inputs in Valdosta to the various inputs in other communities.  So you’re actually get a relative measure of how much does it cost to live in Valdosta compared to Atlanta or Marietta or how much does it cost to live in Valdosta compared to Anchorage, Alaska or to New York City.  For instance, we know that the cost of living in Valdosta is about 95 percent of the national average.

Inflation numbers don’t tell you how much it cost to live in Valdosta; they only tell you how much more expensive it is this period over last period.  What we’re calculating there is actually a measure that tells you how much it cost to live here compared to other areas.  It’s very useful information and it can be used for business recruitment and retention.

For instance, if the Chamber or the Industrial Authority were working with a candidate to come to town and they were trying to put together some type of recruitment information or promotional package.  They will then know how much does it cost to live in Valdosta relative to how much it cost to live in other areas, because this information is aggregated nationally.

It can be very helpful for economic development and aside from that it’s just very interesting for our citizens to know as well, for instance, that groceries in Valdosta are a little more expensive than the national average; healthcare is a little more expensive, but transportation costs are lower and housing costs are significantly lower than the national average.

If you’re interested in receiving a copy of the Cost of Living Index, you can access it each quarter at our website.  You would visit the Valdosta webpage at www.valdosta.edu and then look for the Langdale College of Business and then visit the Center for Business and Economic Research.