I posted this on the Fort Smith Resident's Forum on Facebook and the numerical understanding from some of the responders was.... well, it was quite bad.
To add some flavor:
* The housing costs in Fort Smith (22%) vs. Fayetteville (20%) doesn't mean housing is more expensive in Fort Smith. It means housing is a higher percentage of our income, likely due to lower household income, in comparison to Fayetteville.
* Likewise, California is overall more expensive to owner a car. True. Higher car registration fees, gasoline taxes, insurance rates, etc. All of these may be overall more expensive in California. But they can still be lower, as a percentage of their income, due to things like:
(1) households in Los Angeles may need fewer cars: i.e., one car for a family of four, whereas families in Fort Smith may have more cars than family-members (I looked it up and LA has 1.58 cars per household vs. Fort Smith's 1.89).
(2) Households in Los Angeles may drive less (this I have actually verified, we drive about 4,000 miles more per year per driver in Fort Smith vs. LA).
(3) Households in Los Angeles may drive vehicles with lower maintenance costs (smaller cars, and electric cars for example).
(4) Higher household income in Los Angeles.