Relocation calculator
Cost of Living Comparison
Compare salary equivalence and overall, housing, and utility price-level indexes between major U.S. metropolitan areas.
Privacy: Calculations run locally in your browser. This static version does not send your entries to a server.
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Price-index salary equivalent
$0
Comparison from to .
Overall index change0%
Housing index change0%
Utility index change0%
Salary equivalence multiplies your salary by the ratio of destination and origin all-items RPP. It is not a job-market salary prediction.
How to use the comparison responsibly
Regional price parities compare price levels in the same year. They are useful for answering a narrow question: how different was the general price level between two regions? They do not tell you whether a particular apartment, neighborhood, commute, or lifestyle will be affordable.
Housing deserves its own comparison.A city can have an overall index near the national average while its housing-rent index is much higher. Austin is a clear example in the dataset used here.
Build a relocation decision in three passes
- Use the all-items index to screen salary differences.
- Use the housing index and current listings to create a realistic rent or mortgage line.
- Add location-specific taxes, insurance, transportation, childcare, and healthcare.