INLAND EMPIRE – With the holiday shopping season bearing down, it’s not surprising that people in upscale communities will spend the most.

According to the National Retail Federation, holiday retail sales in November and December --- excluding automobiles, gasoline and restaurants --- is expected to increase between 3.6 and 4 percent.

Not only will overall holiday spending break records this year, but individual spending will as well. Consumers say they are planning to spend an average of $967.

The only Inland Empire city exceeding the average are shoppers in Chino Hills at $1,039.

WalletHub, the personal finance website, compared 570 cities nationwide and found shoppers in Riverside, Ontario and San Bernardino far down the holiday spending list. The average in San Bernardino was only $372. Los Angeles was even lower at just $246.

California’s biggest holiday spenders were in the Bay Area cities of Sunnyvale and Milpitas at more than $2,300.

WalletHub’s analysts used several key metrics, such as income, age and savings-to-monthly expenses ratio.

Story Date: November 22, 2017