Cost of Living Calculator
Compare two US cities to see what salary you'd need, and how housing, taxes, transportation, and utilities are likely to shift when you move.
Results are estimates only, based on cost-of-living indices and published state tax rates — not a substitute for a personalized financial plan.
About this calculator
What it does
It compares two US cities and estimates the salary you would need in the destination to keep your current purchasing power, then breaks the monthly cost difference into housing, taxes, transportation, and utilities so you can see where the money actually moves.
Who it is for
Anyone weighing a job offer, a transfer, or a self-directed move between two specific cities — especially when the destination is clearly cheaper or pricier than where you live now and you want to know by how much, and in which category.
How to use it
- Pick your current city and the city you are considering.
- Enter your annual salary, household size, and current monthly rent or mortgage.
- Choose whether you rent or own, and your main way of getting around.
- Calculate to see the equivalent salary and a category-by-category monthly difference.
How to read the results
A positive monthly difference means the destination costs more; a negative one means it costs less. The equivalent salary is the gross pay that would preserve your current standard of living — if your offered salary is above it, you come out ahead; below it, you lose ground.
A worked example
A single renter earning $75,000 in Chattanooga, TN paying $1,600/month in rent and driving to work compares against Tampa, FL. The calculator scales the salary by the two cities' cost-of-living indices to estimate the equivalent salary in Tampa, estimates a Tampa rent for a similar household, and adds the Florida-vs-Tennessee tax and utility differences — producing one monthly and one annual figure that shows whether the move costs or saves money overall.
Assumptions & limitations
- Cost differences are driven by each city's cost-of-living index, not live prices for specific goods.
- Housing uses a typical median rent or an 80% loan-to-value mortgage at a fixed assumed rate — your actual terms will differ.
- Taxes use CityMove state reference income, sales, and property rates; effective rates are usually lower and local taxes are not itemized.
- Utilities and transportation are baseline household costs scaled by the cost-of-living index and household size.
Where the data comes from
City identity, population, and location come from public sources (OpenStreetMap Nominatim, Wikidata). Cost-of-living indices, typical rents and home prices, and state tax rates are deterministic planning estimates from CityMove's model — see the data sources and methodology pages for detail.