What $100 can buy, state by state

Spend enough time traveling around the United States and you’re bound to notice a dramatic variation in what a dollar can buy.  Everything from the price of a cup of coffee to the cost of a house can fluctuate among, and even within, states. A gallon of regular gas costs $2.74 in Hawaii but just $1.82 in South Carolina. The average Connecticut resident pays twice as much for electricity as the average Tennessee resident. Tuition at public colleges varies by orders of magnitude. Fortunately, the federal government now measures these variations.The most recent data, published in July by the Bureau of Economic Analysis, shows that a dollar can swing more than 30 percent in terms of what it can buy. The “real value” of a dollar is highest in Mississippi, Arkansas, Alabama, South Dakota, and Kentucky. It buys the least in the District of Columbia, Hawaii, New York, New Jersey, California, and Maryland.