Cost of Living Comparison Calculator

The state you are thinking of moving to, or the national average. Choosing the same place as now leaves only the housing costs or tax rates you enter to move the answer, and the status line says so.

Optional. What you expect to pay each month for rent or a mortgage at the new place. It is used only together with your current figure, when both are above zero; a blank or zero means not entered.

Optional. The share of your take-home pay you save rather than spend. The saved part is carried over in dollars and not re-priced, because price levels measure what spending buys. A blank reads as nothing, so the whole salary is re-priced, which is the federal statistics' own practice. It is the same quantity as the savings share the 50/30/20 Budget Split calculator reports only while that calculator's three payroll add-backs are left blank, and only up to this input's 50 percent ceiling; a share enters to the nearest whole point.

Optional. The same flat state income-tax rate for the new place. A blank reads as nothing. With both rates entered, the salary at the new place is raised or lowered so that pay after state tax buys the same spending.

The share of what you spend, not of what you earn, that goes on rent or a mortgage payment, at your current place's prices. It is the one weight you set: rent is priced by the rent levels, and everything else by the price level the all-items figure implies once rent is taken out. A typical household spends about a quarter, which is the Consumer Expenditure Survey's shelter spending for 2024 over what households spent on goods and services. The share at which the published all-items figure fits you exactly is reported with the results. It also runs across the top of the table.

Optional. What you pay now each month for rent, or the whole mortgage payment. Enter it together with the new place's figure and rent is priced from your own two figures instead of from the two states' rent levels, which is how to price a particular city or home. A blank or zero means not entered. With only one of the two entered, the published rent levels are used and the status line says so.

What you are paid now for a year, before any tax, or your household's combined pay if the whole household is moving. The comparison re-prices this salary at the new place, so it is the figure the equivalent salary is measured from. It has to be above zero. It also runs down the side of the table, in steps either side of your own figure.

Optional. A flat state income-tax rate for where you live now, as a share of your salary before tax; use an effective rate if your state's rates are graduated. Leave it blank and it reads as nothing, so the comparison is of prices alone, which is how published price levels are compared. For a state with one flat rate the rate is reported with the results to help you fill this in. Enter a rate for both places or for neither: a rate for one place only, where the other place taxes wages, is charged as a change in full, and the status line warns you.

The state where you live now, or the national average. Every price level is read for this place and for the new one, and the comparison is the ratio of the two. The national average is on the list so that you can compare a state with the country as a whole. A state's figure averages its cities with its countryside, so a large city usually costs more than its state; enter your own two housing costs to price a particular city.

How much higher, or lower, everything except rent is at the new place. It is inferred from the all-items price level with rent taken out at the national rent weight, because no current weights are published for goods, utilities and other services on their own.

The share of spending that rent represents in the national measure at your current place's prices. With no tax rate, saving or housing costs of your own entered, a household spending exactly this share on rent gets the all-items figure; spend more on rent and a move where rents rise more than everything else, or fall less, costs you more than that figure says, while a move where they rise less, or fall more, costs you less.

The equivalent salary less your current salary: how much more the new place needs for the same standard of living, or with a minus sign how much less. It is the sum of the three parts of the change reported with the results, and it is the figure the table tabulates.

State income tax on the equivalent salary at the new place, at the rate you entered; zero when the rate is blank.

The new state's flat income-tax rate for 2026, on the same basis: its one rate where it has a flat rate, zero where it does not tax wages, and blank where its rates are graduated or for the national average. Georgia's is the 4.99 percent that a June 2026 BDO report says House Bill 463 sets for 2026, not confirmed on a Georgia revenue site (the Tax Foundation's table of 1 January prints 5.19). Utah is reported to have cut its 4.50 percent since, at a rate not yet confirmed, and any state may change its rate.

How the new state taxes wages, on the same basis: None, Flat rate, Graduated rates, or Varies by state for the national average.

The new place's rent level in 2024, with the national rent level at 100.

The salaries down the side of the table, in steps of 5,000 either side of yours and never below 1,000. The middle entry is your own salary.

Machinery, and NOT an input. While the table is filled, each salary on its side is put here in turn; the rest of the time it mirrors your current annual salary. Change the salary itself, never this: the axis is built from the salary, so editing the mirror moves the axis while the table walks and the table comes out meaningless.

The body of the table: the change from your current salary, worked out again for every pair of salary and rent share on its two axes. One hundred and twenty-one figures, each the whole calculation run again with everything else as you entered it. It is a component of the table rather than a result on its own.

Machinery. A two-way table needs the figure being tabulated in its top-left corner, where it means nothing to a reader, so it is formatted away. It holds the change from your current salary.

The part of the change that comes from state income tax: the tax on the equivalent salary at the new rate less the tax on your salary now. It is zero unless you entered a rate. Federal and payroll taxes are treated as the same share of pay after state tax in both places, so for a typical earner this part understates a difference in state rates by roughly a fifth to a quarter.

The rent shares across the top of the table, in steps of 3 points either side of yours and kept between 0 and 100 percent. The middle entry is your own share.

Machinery, and NOT an input. The same for the rent share across the top: each share is put here in turn while the table is filled, and the rest of the time it mirrors your share of spending on rent or mortgage.

The new place's price level for everything together in 2024, with the national average at 100.

The current state's flat income-tax rate for 2026, shown to help you fill in the optional rate: its one rate where it has a flat rate, zero where it does not tax wages, and blank where its rates are graduated or for the national average. It comes from the Tax Foundation's table as of 1 January 2026, except Georgia's, which is the 4.99 percent that a June 2026 BDO report says House Bill 463 sets for 2026, not confirmed on a Georgia revenue site (the table prints 5.19). Utah is reported to have cut its 4.50 percent since, at a rate not yet confirmed, and any state may change its rate.

How your current state taxes wages, by the Tax Foundation's table of 1 January 2026: None, Flat rate, Graduated rates, or Varies by state for the national average. It is shown to help you fill in the optional rate, and it decides two of the status warnings.

Your current place's rent level in 2024, with the national rent level at 100. It is measured from tenants' rents; owners' housing is priced from rents in the same measure.

Your current place's price level for everything together in 2024, with the national average at 100.

How much higher, or lower, prices of everything together are at the new place than now, by the published all-items price levels for 2024.

Your salary scaled by the ratio of the two places' all-items price levels, with no re-weighting and no tax or saving. This is the figure the published price levels give on their own, and the federal statistics' own way of adjusting income for prices.

How much more, or less, your own spending costs at the new place: rent weighted by your share of spending on it, and everything else by the rest. It differs from the all-items change whenever your rent share differs from the share the national measure implies.

Says how rent was priced: from the published rent levels of the two states, or from your own two housing costs when you entered both above zero.

How much higher, or lower, rent is at the new place than now: the ratio of the two states' rent levels, or of your own two housing costs when you entered both. Across the states, rents differ far more than the rest of spending taken together, which is why your own share of spending on rent moves the answer; utilities on their own spread about as widely as rents, and this calculation prices them with everything else.

Reads OK, or explains why the inputs cannot be compared, or why the answer deserves a second look: the same place twice, one housing cost without the other, or a state income-tax rate that does not fit the place it was entered for.

The part of the change that comes from rent or mortgage: your spending at current prices, after state tax and less the share you save, times your rent share, times the change in rent prices. Negative where rent is cheaper at the new place.

State income tax on your salary now at the rate you entered; zero when the rate is blank.

The salary before tax at the new place that buys the same basket of spending and keeps the same saving, with the state income-tax rates you entered. It is a price comparison and not a forecast of what employers there pay.

The part of the change that comes from everything except rent, priced the same way with the rest of your spending. Negative where everything else is cheaper at the new place.