BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey at MSA level

Question

I'm trying to get annual data on purchases of televisions at the MSA or city level.

I looked at BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey, but it looks like the MSA-level data is aggregated into coarse categories. The public use micro data, has individual-level data, but it looks like it only has state but not MSA.

Is there a way to get MSA-level total purchases that are not aggregated into very coarse purchase categories? I am interested both in free data like BLS and also potentially private data (so long as it's affordable on a academic research budget

Answer 1

there is a metro area identifier on the ce, but only for the largest ten or so cities.. there probably isn't sample to get any smaller than that; ce should not even be used for state-level statistics. some bls-published msa tables with ce: http://www.bls.gov/cex/csxmsa.htm

Answer 2

I am trying to find a way to identify the portion of national consumer spending for certain items from households by geographic unit (e.g., by census tract or block group). The Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Expenditures Survey seems fairly promising but I am unfamiliar with this dataset and how to dissect it into granular geographic units.

BLS: http://www.bls.gov/cex/csxgloss.htm

Any help on how to read this would be appreciated - I have looked at the 'new users' materials but still can't make heads or tails of it.