Find out what salary you actually need to maintain the same lifestyle after a move. Housing, taxes, transport, the works: categorized, indexed, and compared.
Built for the moment you're weighing a relocation offer, a remote-work move, or "should I stay or should I go."
Direct answers to the most common questions, in plain language. Skim if you're in a hurry; dig deeper below.
About 65–80% more, primarily housing.
San Francisco costs roughly 75% more to live in than Austin, almost entirely due to housing (2.5×). To maintain the same lifestyle on a $100,000 Austin salary, you'd need about $165,000–$180,000 in San Francisco. Account for state income tax too: Texas has none; California taxes up to 13.3%.
Memphis, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, and Indianapolis lead the affordability rankings.
Among major metros, Memphis, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, and Indianapolis consistently rank as the most affordable. Housing in these cities runs 30–50% below the national average. The trade-off is usually lower wage growth and fewer high-paying job opportunities.
If you can keep your income, yes: often net savings of $20–40K/year.
Remote workers who keep coastal salaries while moving to lower-cost metros can save $20K–$50K per year. The math gets tighter when you have to take a local-market salary cut. Run housing + state tax + commute math for both cities before committing.
The traditional rule is 30%, but 25% is healthier.
The "30% rule" is the upper bound; anything above it is technically cost-burdened. In high-cost cities, many residents pay 40–50%, which crowds out savings, retirement, and emergencies. Targeting 25% leaves room for everything else.
The mechanics in short answers. No jargon, no upsell.
Economists track the price of a representative basket of goods and services across cities. Each city gets an index number (100 = national average). So an index of 150 means that city is 50% more expensive than average.
Among all categories, housing varies most between cities. Food and clothing rarely differ by more than 15%; housing can differ by 200–300%. If you want to know if a city is "expensive," look at rent first.
A city with low housing but high income tax can net out more expensive than a high-housing, no-tax city. Texas, Florida, Tennessee, Nevada, Washington, and a few others have zero state income tax, a structural advantage that compounds at high incomes.
The "average" assumes you spend a typical share of income on housing, food, transport, etc. If you eat out 5× more than average, your personal cost basket overweights restaurants, and your real cost-of-living delta moves with your habits.
Worked example: Moving from Austin (index ≈ 121) to San Francisco (index ≈ 185) on a $100,000 salary, you need ≈ $153,000 to keep the same lifestyle, and at a 70% spend share, your $70,000 of annual spending is repriced category by category, dominated by housing jumping from index 159 to 314.
City indexes come from a built-in 50-metro table approximating BLS CPI-U metro data and major cost-of-living aggregators (national average = 100); the state-tax line uses a flat effective rate per state, not full brackets. All math runs locally in your browser; your numbers never leave this page.
Designed so anyone can model their situation in under a minute, with or without a finance background.
Compare housing, food, transport, utilities, and taxes between any two cities in one view.
See exactly what salary maintains your current lifestyle after relocating, no guesswork.
No-income-tax states get the credit they're due, even when "lower COL" cities tax more.
Find out exactly what jumps: is it rent, groceries, or transit pushing the difference?
Based on BLS CPI-U metro indexes and consumer expenditure averages, not vibes.
Tee up a relocation conversation with hard numbers your manager can't argue with.
Everything you might ask before, during, or after using this tool.
A cost-of-living index uses a weighted basket of typical consumer expenses: housing (largest weight, ~33%), groceries, transportation, healthcare, utilities, and miscellaneous goods. Each city's prices are compared to a national baseline (set to 100). An index of 130 means that city is 30% more expensive than average.
Housing, by a huge margin. Rent and home prices can be 3–5× different between major metros. Healthcare and transportation are next, typically varying 20–40%. Food and clothing are mostly national, with smaller (10–15%) regional variations.
It varies by source. Pure consumer-price indexes (like CPI-U) don't include income tax. Many cost-of-living calculators add state and local tax overlays; this one does. The difference between Texas (0% state income) and California (up to 13.3%) is material at $100K+ salaries.
Mississippi, West Virginia, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Kentucky consistently rank as the cheapest US states, with cost-of-living indexes 12–18% below the national average. Most of the savings come from housing and to a lesser extent transportation.
High-COL cities pay higher nominal salaries, but the premium rarely fully compensates. A $200K San Francisco software engineer often has less real purchasing power than a $130K Austin engineer once housing and taxes are factored in. Remote work has narrowed but not closed this arbitrage.
Yes, especially for a remote-to-remote move or a relocation offer. Frame the conversation on "salary parity" rather than absolute dollars. A 20% raise to move from Houston to NYC sounds great but might be a 25% pay cut in real terms. Bring city-comparison data to back the ask.
Yes, generally. It averaged 3% annually in the US over the last 30 years. Some categories (housing, healthcare, education) have outpaced general inflation significantly. Pair this calculator with the Inflation Calculator to see how today's salary will hold up in 10–20 years.
They're close approximations based on BLS metro CPI data and Consumer Expenditure Survey weights. For a specific neighborhood or lifestyle, your numbers will vary. Use this as a starting point, then verify rent on Zillow/Apartments.com and groceries on local store websites.
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When you read that San Francisco is 70% more expensive than Austin, the headline hides where the money actually goes. Housing accounts for roughly 33% of the typical household budget, and the housing delta between major metros can run 200–300%. The other categories barely move. Median home prices in SF run $1.4M+ vs $450K in Austin; rent on a one-bedroom runs $3,400 vs $1,500.
This means the "right" city for your finances often comes down to one variable. If you can solve the housing equation (rent stability, smaller place, roommates, employer housing benefit), the rest of the cost-of-living math becomes manageable. If you can't, you'll be cost-burdened in any expensive city regardless of how much you earn.
Pure cost-of-living comparisons often skip state income tax. But for high earners, the tax difference between states can dwarf the housing difference. A $250K salary in California faces a top marginal rate around 13.3%; in Texas, 0%. That's ~$25,000–$30,000/year more in your pocket, which can buy a lot of housing.
For top earners, the right framing is "total cost after housing AND taxes." Three of the most attractive low-tax + low-housing states currently are Texas, Florida, and Tennessee. They've also become the top destinations for remote workers from the coasts since 2020.
The single biggest financial unlock of the past five years is keeping a coastal salary while living in a low-cost city. A $180K New York salary in Asheville, NC adds up to roughly $60–80K more in disposable income annually. Compounded across a career, this is life-changing money.
The arbitrage is shrinking; many employers now adjust pay by location. But "geo-pay zones" usually trail real cost-of-living differences, so even with adjustment the math still favors lower-cost cities. The risk: if your role becomes layoff-eligible, your local market may pay 30–50% less.
Moving from Houston to NYC, you might genuinely need 60% more income to maintain parity. But few people maintain parity. The city changes them: nicer restaurants, more taxis, weekend trips, gym membership in a fancier place. Within a year or two, your "improved lifestyle" eats whatever the higher salary delivered.
The fix: budget the move in writing. Decide before the move which categories you'll keep at your old levels. Most people who succeed financially in high-cost cities ruthlessly hold the housing and transport categories down; they live in smaller apartments and take the subway, even when the salary "could" afford more.
Two short notes worth reading before you trust any number on this page.
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