cost of utilities

Hi Gwendolyn - 

You might look into Regional Price Parities (RPPs) from the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA).
Regional Price Parities, Real Personal Consumption Expenditures, and Real Personal Income | U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) 

They have utility expenses by state and by MSA:

Thank you, Dave! Please, could you walk me through how you got to this "Regional Data GDP and Personal Income" screen?

Yes, that is a bit tricky.  You can find the data in the BEA's interactive data tool:
Interactive Data Application | U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA)

I used the following steps:

• Under Regional Data on the left, click on Gross Domestic Product and Personal Income
• Click on Interactive Data Tables
• Near the bottom of the list of tables, click on REAL PERSONAL INCOME (RPI), REAL PERSONAL CONSUMPTION EXPENDITURES (RPCE), REGIONAL PRICE PARITIES (RPPS), then click on Regional price parities (RPPs)
• Select SARPP (by state) or MARPP (by MSA)

The values are relative costs - a value above 100 is more than the average, etc.  I'm not sure if there is a way to tie these values to actual dollar expenses.  

Yes, that is a bit tricky.  You can find the data in the BEA's interactive data tool:
Interactive Data Application | U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA)

I used the following steps:

• Under Regional Data on the left, click on Gross Domestic Product and Personal Income
• Click on Interactive Data Tables
• Near the bottom of the list of tables, click on REAL PERSONAL INCOME (RPI), REAL PERSONAL CONSUMPTION EXPENDITURES (RPCE), REGIONAL PRICE PARITIES (RPPS), then click on Regional price parities (RPPs)
• Select SARPP (by state) or MARPP (by MSA)

The values are relative costs - a value above 100 is more than the average, etc.  I'm not sure if there is a way to tie these values to actual dollar expenses.  

So, the "SARPP Regional price parities by state" is the average cost of utilities???

Gwendolyn - 

The BEA RPPs are relative costs - how much more or less this state pays than other states.  For actual dollar costs, the BEA Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCEs) are probably more appropriate. There is a table: SAPCE3 Personal consumption expenditures (PCE) by state by type of product.

This table gives total costs across the area for different expenditures. Here is a link that should take you to a table of costs for New Mexico for the last 5 years for household utility expenses:
BEA Interactive Data Application

For a per person or per household value, you would need to divide by the appropriate denominator.  

BTW, the BEA data are derived from ACS PUMS data.

A little background on other surveys. Just to comment on BEA and BLS stats. None of their surveys have anything close to the coverage of the ACS data.  Often the BLS (bureau of labor statistics) and the BEA (bureau of economic analysis) use the ACS data in their calculations, as do many other departments that compile stats.  The current population survey (CPS) collects useful stats but they have a smaller coverage than the ACS. For business stats, In conjunction with the Department of Commerce the Census (ABS Annual Business Survey) conducts a business survey (I know because I get the survey). They have a pretty large sample size but maybe 1/3 to 1/2 of the ACS sample size.

Dave