Cost of Living Calculator: How Your City Compares to Other U.S. Cities

Cost of Living in Top States

What is a cost of living calculator?

The cost of living calculator tells you how much money you need to maintain your current standard of living in a different city. The cost of living comparison is based on your income and the price of basic necessities such as housing, transportation or food in the two cities you selected. Use the calculator to find out what income you will need in a new city and how much more or less you’ll need to budget for basic expenses.

What is included in the cost of living?

A cost of living comparison always takes basic necessities into account, but most often covers lifestyle expenses such as entertainment as well. In a cost of living comparison by city, you will learn how much pricier or cheaper it is to live in a city overall, as well as the differences in prices between individual goods and services.

Housing (Buy and Rent)

Housing is the most significant expense for most American households. The cost of living in a certain city takes into account both the price of monthly rent and the price of a home.

Transportation

Transportation expenses are also considered when calculating the cost of the living. We take the price of gas and a basic maintenance service into account.

Utilities (Monthly)

Both owning and renting come with utility expenses which vary around the country. These costs include basic services such as energy and telecommunications.

Food

Food is the most important necessity for most households and its cost varies around the country. This section includes the prices of everyday foods such as produce, meat and dairy.

Goods & Services

Clothing. The cost of clothing tells you how much more or less money you need to buy basic items such as men’s shirts, jeans or women’s slacks in a new city.

Entertainment. The cost of these services is based on common expenses in each category. The cost of living comparison includes the price of movie tickets and services like haircuts or dry cleaning.

Healthcare

Healthcare is one of the most important aspects to consider when moving to a new city or state, so we include services such as doctor's visits or dentist check-ups.

Income

The cost of living calculator also takes the median household income into account, so you can estimate how much more or less you could be earning in a new city by comparing it to the median income in your current area.

Where does the data come from?

Consumer goods, services and home prices are sourced from The Cost of Living Index published by the Council for Community and Economic Research (C2ER).
The data on this page is updated bi-annually and it was last published in September 2024.

Average rent data is our in-house proprietary data from Yardi Matrix, where available. For the remaining locations, C2ER rent data was used. Yardi Matrix is a business development and asset management tool for brokers, sponsors, banks and equity sources underwriting investments in the multifamily, office, industrial and self-storage sectors, a division of Yardi Systems, Inc.

Household income data is sourced from the U.S. Census Bureau’s most recent estimates.

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