Posted by: Richie Bernardo

There’s a lot to love about Halloween: candy, costumes, horror films, haunted houses, parties and more. Plus, you get a legitimate excuse to scare the daylights out of people. So if you love Halloween, then you’ll want to make sure you’re in the most spook-tacular part of America on Oct. 31.

But just how hauntingly fun you want this time of year to be depends on your plans and budget. This year, the average U.S. household is expected to spend $86.13 on Halloween expenses, from decorations to treats to costumes. In some cities you’ll spend less, in others more. And if you’re counting on getting more free treats in return for your investment, you’ll definitely want to be in a place with the most trick-or-treat stops.

To help you decide where to spend Halloween without frightening your wallet, we compared the 100 largest U.S. cities based on 18 key metrics. They range from costume stores per capita to average price per Halloween party ticket to share of potential trick-or-treat stops. Read on for the winners, expert Halloween spending and safety advice, and a full description of our methodology.

For fun and interesting facts about the third most popular holiday in America, check out WalletHub’s Halloween Facts: Tricks & Treats By the Numbers infographic.

1. Main Findings
2. Ask the Experts
3. Methodology

Main Findings

Embed on your website<iframe src="//d2e70e9yced57e.cloudfront.net/wallethub/embed/7785/geochart-halloween.html" width="556" height="347" frameBorder="0" scrolling="no"></iframe> <div style="width:556px;font-size:12px;color:#888;">Source: <a href="http://ift.tt/2yKeNre;  

Best Places for Halloween

Overall Rank (1 = Best)	City	Total Score	‘Trick-or-Treater-Friendliness’ Rank	‘Halloween Fun’ Rank	‘Halloween Weather’ Rank
1	New York, NY	76.05	1	2	53
2	Jersey City, NJ	64.79	2	56	70
3	Santa Ana, CA	63.80	3	37	78
4	Las Vegas, NV	62.31	48	3	25
5	Anaheim, CA	62.07	6	18	70
6	Los Angeles, CA	62.01	23	6	53
7	Chicago, IL	61.28	21	8	69
8	Laredo, TX	61.25	5	99	18
9	San Diego, CA	61.16	34	4	41
10	Gilbert, AZ	59.90	4	96	86
11	St. Paul, MN	59.84	13	41	24
12	Fresno, CA	59.62	11	30	41
13	San Jose, CA	58.47	18	26	33
14	Chula Vista, CA	57.98	7	76	37
15	Boston, MA	57.93	10	49	65
16	El Paso, TX	57.90	16	77	10
17	Garland, TX	57.53	12	89	2
18	San Francisco, CA	57.42	41	9	33
19	Irvine, CA	56.73	8	44	78
20	Long Beach, CA	56.37	9	63	41
21	Fremont, CA	56.33	15	81	37
22	Philadelphia, PA	56.26	17	40	60
23	Plano, TX	56.18	19	84	3
24	Newark, NJ	56.01	14	98	60
25	Boise, ID	55.81	25	52	14
26	Sacramento, CA	55.61	47	13	41
27	Minneapolis, MN	55.31	36	28	28
28	Irving, TX	55.20	20	95	10
29	Bakersfield, CA	55.14	26	35	33
30	Arlington, TX	54.96	32	53	4
31	Honolulu, HI	54.74	42	20	30
32	Denver, CO	54.62	44	27	10
33	Colorado Springs, CO	54.43	39	48	1
34	Portland, OR	54.35	61	7	59
35	Dallas, TX	54.01	56	23	4
36	Orlando, FL	53.96	91	1	41
37	Fort Worth, TX	53.73	30	80	4
38	Aurora, CO	53.59	27	92	4
39	Miami, FL	53.51	66	5	99
40	Houston, TX	53.13	57	17	41
41	Chandler, AZ	52.95	22	79	82
42	Tampa, FL	52.95	64	12	53
43	San Antonio, TX	52.54	69	16	29
44	Omaha, NE	52.41	45	42	25
45	Lincoln, NE	52.29	31	91	10
46	Hialeah, FL	52.18	24	65	100
47	Mesa, AZ	52.01	29	58	83
48	Reno, NV	51.99	53	32	25
49	Austin, TX	51.54	62	21	31
50	Riverside, CA	51.52	38	47	53
51	Phoenix, AZ	51.46	50	25	75
52	Virginia Beach, VA	51.46	28	62	78
53	North Las Vegas, NV	51.09	33	100	18
54	Seattle, WA	50.92	60	24	50
55	Columbus, OH	50.19	46	39	76
56	Pittsburgh, PA	50.04	71	10	84
57	Henderson, NV	50.02	35	93	18
58	Cincinnati, OH	49.90	74	14	64
59	Buffalo, NY	49.62	49	38	90
60	Corpus Christi, TX	49.14	51	82	33
61	Milwaukee, WI	48.23	55	59	52
62	Washington, DC	48.02	40	69	93
63	Madison, WI	47.90	52	86	51
64	Charlotte, NC	47.66	65	36	87
65	Norfolk, VA	47.64	58	60	70
66	Stockton, CA	47.53	37	97	93
67	Louisville, KY	47.43	78	19	49
68	Fort Wayne, IN	47.22	43	87	77
69	San Bernardino, CA	46.74	59	83	60
70	Oakland, CA	46.30	63	74	37
71	Wichita, KS	46.14	74	73	15
72	Oklahoma City, OK	45.96	72	61	18
73	Baltimore, MD	45.35	73	33	91
74	Chesapeake, VA	45.33	54	94	70
75	Indianapolis, IN	45.30	85	22	58
76	Toledo, OH	44.59	67	67	92
77	Scottsdale, AZ	44.46	80	29	88
78	Tucson, AZ	44.18	93	34	4
79	Anchorage, AK	43.94	77	78	17
80	Atlanta, GA	43.92	94	11	78
81	Tulsa, OK	43.81	82	72	15
82	Lubbock, TX	43.71	83	70	18
83	Lexington-Fayette, KY	43.60	70	85	48
84	New Orleans, LA	43.42	88	31	41
85	Jacksonville, FL	43.41	79	45	60
86	Albuquerque, NM	43.28	90	50	4
87	Nashville, TN	42.89	81	43	65
88	Glendale, AZ	42.36	68	88	88
89	Baton Rouge, LA	41.14	86	57	65
90	Durham, NC	40.91	76	75	97
91	St. Louis, MO	40.71	99	15	32
92	Raleigh, NC	40.19	87	51	97
93	Greensboro, NC	39.50	84	64	93
94	Kansas City, MO	38.88	95	68	18
95	Winston-Salem, NC	38.72	89	66	93
96	Cleveland, OH	38.44	92	71	85
97	Memphis, TN	37.15	97	54	40
98	Detroit, MI	36.77	98	46	68
99	St. Petersburg, FL	35.17	96	90	53
100	Birmingham, AL	32.32	100	55	70

Ask the Experts

Halloween can be more than playing dress-up and hoarding sweet treats. It’s also a big holiday expense for many American households. We’ve asked a panel of experts to share their financial wisdom for keeping Halloween budgets in check as well as strategies for ensuring the safety of young trick-or-treaters. Click on the experts’ profiles to read their bios and thoughts on the following key questions:

1. How can the process of collecting and allocating Halloween candy be used to teach children about personal finance?
2. What are some strategies for celebrating Halloween without breaking the bank?
3. In evaluating the best cities for Halloween, what are the top five indicators?
4. What measures should local authorities take to ensure kids are safe when trick-or-treating?

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• Madhavi Menon Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience at Nova Southeastern University’s College of Psychology
• Dean Karlan Nemmers Distinguished Professor of Economics and Finance in the Kellogg School of Management, and Co-Director of the Global Poverty Research Lab in the Buffett Institute for Global Studies at Northwestern University
• Bryan T. Froehle Professor of Practical Theology at St. Thomas University

Madhavi Menon Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience at Nova Southeastern University’s College of Psychology How can the process of collecting and allocating Halloween candy be used to teach children about personal finance? Halloween is a great time to get children acquainted with some basic principles of personal finance, to understand the concepts of saving, delayed gratification and negotiation by deciding which candies they should eat immediately, which to save, and which they can trade/barter with siblings or friends. Children could also be introduced to the concept of earning interest or dividends, by giving them the option of either eating all of their candy in one sitting, or spreading it out over a period of time and earning “interest” -- it could be a small, inexpensive toy -- for “saving” their candy. This can help children understand the concept of the principal amount (their candy), and dividend or interest (the additional toy they can get for “saving” their principal). This strategy could give children who typically seek instant gratification motivation to save and delay gratification. Furthermore, children could also use their Halloween candy stash as currency, and use candy as economic tokens in exchange for other desirable articles. For instance, children could be encouraged to exchange pieces of candy for toys -- for example, they could give their sibling three lollipops in exchange for playing with their airplanes. Children can also determine the differential value of things in this manner -- for instance, they need to give three pieces of candy for playing with the airplanes, but five pieces of candy for playing with the magnetic tiles -- thus understanding the links between the value of a product and desirability. Additionally, children can also gain an appreciation for the concept of trading, when they barter or trade their Halloween loot with their friends or siblings. Halloween is thus a perfect time to teach children about economics and personal finances, with candy standing in for actual coins and notes. What are some strategies for celebrating Halloween without breaking the bank? Oftentimes, Halloween costumes can cost a fair amount of cash. One way to control expenses at this time would be to begin Halloween planning and preparations early, so children can get their desired costumes when some of the big-box stores offer discounts. While it might not help much for this year, buying costumes after the holiday (when many stores offer deep discounts on seasonal ware) can often get you the best deal. This has two benefits: first, you have a desirable costume at a fraction of the price, and second, you don’t have to worry about a costume for next year and can channel your energies elsewhere. Another strategy would be to see if children are amenable to reusing their costumes from last year. This strategy is more likely to work if this is incentivized in some way (for example, you can get a certain amount of money for reusing last year’s costume). Otherwise, exchanging costumes with friends might be a way to have a new costume each year without breaking the bank. Home-made costumes can also be cost-effective, but one needs to be particularly careful, because sometimes just getting all the materials for a costume might work out to be more expensive than buying a ready-made costume from a big-box store. And then, of course, checking out the thrift stores is also a great idea to get deals. But the underlying key for most of these strategies to actually work is to be prepared and plan early, and not wait until the last minute. In evaluating the best cities for Halloween, what are the top five indicators? From a child’s perspective, I think that instead of the “best cities” for Halloween, it’s probably more accurate to consider the “best neighborhoods” for Halloween. The top three indicators of what makes a Halloween-friendly neighborhood would be:

• Neighborhoods with lots of young and elementary school-aged children are more likely to be prepared for the onslaught of trick-or-treaters at Halloween, as compared to neighborhoods that do not have too many children;

• Neighborhoods with houses placed relatively close to each other are more likely to see children coming by as compared to houses set further apart, as larger lots often mean fewer houses, and hence more work -- in terms of walking -- for potentially less candy;

• Neighborhoods with community centers that organize Halloween parades or events typically help get the neighborhood in the spirit of the holiday, and residents are more likely to decorate and be enthusiastic about it.

Dean Karlan Nemmers Distinguished Professor of Economics and Finance in the Kellogg School of Management, and Co-Director of the Global Poverty Research Lab in the Buffett Institute for Global Studies at Northwestern University How can the process of collecting and allocating Halloween candy be used to teach children about personal finance? Many parents are already doing it, without realizing. In personal finance, we often think about how to take sudden irregular expenses or windfalls, and "smooth" them over time. It’s a challenge for people whose paychecks are sporadic or irregular (like people who get paid when a project is complete) to budget for all their expenses until the next payday. Similarly, when you get a windfall (a sudden inheritance, winning the lottery, a professional athlete’s salary), it’s easy to binge and get in trouble. When parents tell their kids not to eat all their candy at once (and hopefully demonstrate restraint themselves), they could be using that opportunity to teach the general lesson. When you get a lot of something you’ve wanted for a while, don’t use it all up at once. Think about your future self and make sure you’re setting enough aside for them to be happy, too. Also, lots of kids already barter with their siblings to get a more optimal distribution of candy -- trading off stuff they don’t want for stuff they do. With just a couple of kids though, you don’t have many buyers and sellers. Good parents would arrange to get a bunch of families together at the end of the night and set up a candy exchange, where lot of kids can trade and let more kids get what they want (think of the end of the movie “Trading Places”). Of course, a savvy parent would skim a commission off the top or charge a peppermint patty to get into the exchange. What are some strategies for celebrating Halloween without breaking the bank? Here’s one example where you can time the market -- get your costume for next year on November 1. In evaluating the best cities for Halloween, what are the top five indicators? I did some work on which countries would be best off from a World Cup Win, by trying to use the principle of the most happiness for the most people in the most need. But soccer assumes a level playing field (no pun intended), the (literal) field is the same everywhere. For Halloween, I’d want to think about what economists call “clustering” -- sometimes, special things happen when a lot of people or companies with similar interests happen to be in the same place (auto manufacturers, banking centers, jewelry districts). Lots of trick-or-treating probably makes for families who'll go the extra mile and buy the good candy. I’d look at:

• Neighborhoods with a high density of families with trick-or-treat age kids;

• Presence of sidewalks -- a lot of suburbs aren’t built with sidewalks anymore, assuming people don’t walk, which then makes it hard to walk, especially at night;

• How connected neighbors are to one another, or “neighborhood social capital,” has been shown to be a hidden factor for dealing with negative events, but should be helpful for trick-or-treating, so I’d look at measures of local civic engagement -- voting in local elections, involvement in PTA, density of locally-dependent social organizations, like houses of worship;

• Big box stores -- how easy is it to stock up on candy;

• Proximity of homes to each other -- think about the wage rate for kids, a high wage (i.e., can visit many homes in an hour or two);

• Number of dentists per capita.

What measures should local authorities take to ensure kids are safe when trick-or- treating? I always used Halloween as an opportunity to run experiments with the neighborhood kids, so I have got to keep my kids home as research assistants. So, I guess educating families on the wonderful research opportunities associated with Halloween. Bryan T. Froehle Professor of Practical Theology at St. Thomas University How can the process of collecting and allocating Halloween candy be used to teach children about personal finance? The key is to engage children in the basic human experience of exchange. How much is one piece of more desirable candy worth for another, less desirable candy? Help them see that they received the candy as a free gift but, they are now bringing value to it in the exchange. What are some strategies for celebrating Halloween without breaking the bank? Parents can offer to pay for the costume or aspects of a costume that the child might create in exchange for a share of the candy. Children may well decide to create their own costume out of materials they have or with minimal expense. In evaluating the best cities for Halloween, what are the top five indicators? Metropolitan areas vary by participation in this tradition. Some metropolitan areas have many more gated communities. Others have a greater fear of crime or concerns about children’s safety. Some have higher concentrations of certain kinds of Christians, who see the celebration of Halloween as problematic. Still others simply have fewer families with young children, reducing critical mass to celebrate. Not all families in every part of the country share the same cultural expectations and experience of Halloween -- those who have a richer experience and stronger expectations celebrate it more so. What measures should local authorities take to ensure kids are safe when trick-or- treating? Ironically, it is important not to overreact. Overreacting can be more detrimental to children’s safety. When authorities advise caution or put in place strong measures, such as times and curfews or a police presence, parents and guardians rightly get more cautious, thereby limiting or preventing the young people in their charge from taking part or curtailing their own involvement. This leads to fewer present to celebrate -- both to greet trick-or-treaters and to walk with them -- and to have fewer numbers is more problematic for safety. The key is not to overreact, but to encourage all to enjoy and have fun. This means that all should be involved in a multigenerational event. When adults are adults, children can be children and all can enjoy.

Methodology

In order to determine the best Halloween destinations, WalletHub’s analysts compared 100 of the most populated U.S. cities across three key dimensions: 1) Trick-or-Treater-Friendliness, 2) Halloween Fun and 3) Halloween Weather.

We evaluated those dimensions using 18 relevant metrics, which are listed below with their corresponding weights. Each metric was graded on a 100-point scale, with a score of 100 representing the most favorable conditions for a Halloween celebration.

Finally, we determined each city’s weighted average across all metrics to calculate its total score and used the resulting scores to rank-order our sample. In determining our sample, we considered only the “city proper” in each case and excluded cities in the surrounding metro area.

Trick-or-Treater-Friendliness – Total Points: 60

• Share of Potential Trick-or-Treaters: Double Weight (~16.00 Points)Note: This metric measures the percentage of the population aged 14 and younger.
• Share of Potential Trick-or-Treat Stops: Half Weight (~4.00 Points)Note: This metric measures the percentage of occupied housing units.
• Population Density: Full Weight (~8.00 Points)
• Walk Score: Full Weight (~8.00 Points)Note: This metric measures the walkable distance in the neighborhood.
• Crime Rate: Double Weight (~16.00 Points)Note: This metric was used as a proxy for neighborhood security.
• Pedestrian Fatality Rate: Full Weight (~8.00 Points)

Halloween Fun – Total Points: 30

• Average Price per Halloween Party Ticket: Full Weight (~3.33 Points)Note: Average prices are based on Halloween events listed on Eventbrite.com as of Oct. 10, 2017, where at least two events were available.
• Halloween Costume Stores per Capita: Full Weight (~3.33 Points)
• Halloween Party Supply Stores per Capita: Full Weight (~3.33 Points)
• Candy & Chocolate Stores per Capita: Full Weight (~3.33 Points)
• Haunted Houses per Capita: Full Weight (~3.33 Points)
• Pumpkin Patches per Capita: Full Weight (~3.33 Points)
• Movie Theaters per Capita: Half Weight (~1.67 Points)Note: This metric was used as a proxy for horror films timed with Halloween.
• Average Price per Movie Ticket: Half Weight (~1.67 Points)
• Bars & Dance Clubs per Capita: Full Weight (~3.33 Points)
• Number of Amusement Parks: Full Weight (~3.33 Points)

Halloween Weather – Total Points: 10

• Halloween Temperature vs. Average Temperature: Full Weight (~5.00 Points)Note: This metric measures the difference between the average forecasted temperature for Halloween and the average normal temperature for this time period.
• Forecasted Halloween Precipitation: Full Weight (~5.00 Points)

 Sources: Data used to create this ranking were collected from the U.S. Census Bureau, Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Department of Transportation - National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Council for Community and Economic Research, AccuWeather, Walk Score, Yelp and Eventbrite.

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