Cost of Living Calculator

What is a cost of living calculator?

A cost of living calculator compares how expensive it is to live in different areas by looking at key expenses like housing, childcare, and taxes. This tool turns those costs into easy-to-read indexes (US = 100) so you can quickly see whether a city, county, or state is more or less affordable than the national average.

How to Interpret Cost of Living Indexes

Every index shown in this tool uses the U.S. as a baseline of 100. Higher numbers mean higher costs than the U.S. average, and lower numbers mean lower costs.

Overall Cost of Living

This blended index summarizes housing, childcare, and taxes. For a deeper look at how your income fits into a specific location, explore the Income Percentile Calculator and the Monthly Budget Calculator.

Housing Cost Index

This reflects median home values and local rents. Housing is usually the largest expense in a household budget, so even small differences can dramatically change affordability.

Childcare Cost Index

Based on infant, toddler, and preschool center rates. For families with young children, this can be as large as a mortgage payment.

Tax Burden Index

A simplified view of state and local sales tax and estimated income tax on a $75,000 salary. This helps compare tax pressure across regions.

Why cost of living feels so high right now

You might have heard the phrase “housing is local.” It’s true—there’s a huge difference in what it costs to live from one city or county to another. In most budgets, housing is the single biggest expense, so when home prices surge faster than wages, everyday life suddenly feels much less affordable.

Since COVID-19, many areas have seen home values jump sharply while incomes have not kept up. The same thing has happened in other essentials, especially health care and child care, where costs have often grown faster than general inflation. When your largest expenses outpace your pay, it creates what many people experience as an “affordability crisis.”

The goal of this tool is to make those pressures visible. By breaking down housing, childcare, and taxes into simple indexes, you can see how your current area compares with other places—and use that information alongside the Income Percentile Calculator and the Monthly Budget Calculator to decide which locations actually fit your real-life budget.

Cost of Living Calculator – FAQ