Cost of Living Calculator

Every cost-of-living index sets a reference value at 100 and reports each metro as a percentage of that reference. This calculator uses the US national average = 100 convention shared by the Bureau of Economic Analysis Regional Price Parities (BEA RPP) and the Council for Community and Economic Research (C2ER). A city with an index of 150 has a representative consumer basket (housing, groceries, utilities, transportation, healthcare, and other goods and services) costing 50% more than the national average. A city at 90 costs 10% less. The math for an equivalent salary is symmetric: target salary equals current salary times (target index divided by current index).

Housing. The BEA Regional Price Parities show that goods, services, and utilities prices vary only modestly between US metros (most cities sit in a 90 to 115 band on those sub-indices), but the rents sub-index ranges from roughly 60 in low-cost metros to 250+ in San Francisco and New York. On a typical household budget housing is 30-40% of spending, so when rents are nearly three times the national average the composite index gets pulled sharply higher even if everything else is close to normal. That is why moving from Chicago to San Francisco can require a 50-80% raise to keep the same lifestyle, while moving across two affordable Midwestern metros is often a wash.

Two reasons. First, housing is the largest single line item in most US household budgets at 30-40% of after-tax spending per the BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey, so any change in housing price moves the composite index more than a change in any other category. Second, housing prices have the widest dispersion across metros: a 1,000 square foot apartment can rent for $900 in Cleveland and $4,500 in San Francisco, a 5x gap that simply does not exist in groceries, utilities, or healthcare. A gallon of milk costs roughly $4 in Memphis and $5.50 in Manhattan, a 37% gap. The same square footage of housing can differ by 400%. That asymmetry is why housing dominates every credible cost-of-living comparison.

No. The composite index only adjusts for retail price differences (the cost of buying a representative basket of goods and services). State and local income tax can move the picture significantly: California's top marginal rate is 13.3% on income above about $1 million while Texas, Florida, Washington, Nevada, Tennessee, South Dakota, Wyoming and Alaska have no state income tax at all. New York City layers a city income tax on top of New York State. A $150,000 salary that survives a move from San Francisco to Austin on the price-basket math gains an additional 6-9% in take-home pay from the tax change alone. Pair this calculator with our take-home pay calculator to model state-tax differences on top.

Three primary sources, blended. The Bureau of Economic Analysis publishes Regional Price Parities (RPP) annually for every US metro statistical area, with breakdowns for goods, rents, and other services. The Council for Community and Economic Research (formerly ACCRA) publishes a quarterly Cost of Living Index covering 250+ urban areas that drills into specific basket items (a half-gallon of milk, a doctor visit, a haircut). Numbeo publishes a crowdsourced composite cost-of-living index that captures consumer-perceived differences. The values in this calculator are normalized so the US national average sits at 100, with category weights derived from the BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey shares. Numbers reference 2024-2025 data and update annually.