Being bad at managing money or living in an area that makes it impossible to make ends meet raises people’s stress levels.
Knowing those facts, WalletHub.com, an educational and research source about the economy and consumers, set out to find which areas of the United States were the worst for economic stress. Money, work and the economy, in that order, are leading causes of stress, WalletHub says, and stress costs individuals and the economy billions of dollars a year.
WalletHub rated 150 U.S. cities on their affordability along with people’s budgeting skills and the area’s general livability. Factors taken into consideration include credit scores, home ownership rates, foreclosure rates, the availability of affordable housing, median household incomes, average commuting time and ranking on the Gallup Well-Being Index, which includes the healthiness of the population.
Following are the areas that ranked the lowest for both affordability and livability and a few reasons why the cities ranked at the bottom.
10. Birmingham, Ala.
Birmingham ranked 140th for affordability and 143rd for livability.