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This comparison calculator is not definitive or a guarantee since the calculator does not account for all costs or variables, such as state and local income, property, or school taxes or your spending habits. This cost of living calculator, which is powered by data from the Council for Community and Economic Research, allows you to compare some costs to live in one area against another. This will help you eliminate cities that may be too expensive, so you can find the perfect fit. Then, run a cost of living comparison by city for each area. This will give you an idea of monthly expenses in a new city before you make the move.ĭon’t have a specific destination in mind? No worries.

Simply reference your current budget as a starting point and fill in the values using our calculator's data. You can also use the costs listed for everyday living expenses - like the city’s average rent or mortgage, or the price of a grocery item - to outline a budget for your new city. You can then compare that data to your salary to determine what you’d need to earn to maintain your current standard of living. The index refreshes that data quarterly so we can give you up-to-date cost of living by city information. Our calculator uses COLI, a cost of living index that pulls data from real-life surveyors all over the country. How can I use MYMOVE’s cost of living calculator to plan my move? Doing a cost of living comparison between your current area and a prospective city ensures that you can maintain your current standard of living in the new location.ĬOLI, the cost of living index we use to power our calculator, surveys housing, food, health care, transportation, and utility costs to paint a picture of what future expenses would look like if you moved. The first step in determining if you should move to a new city is to make sure that you can afford to live there. What is ‘cost of living,’ and how is it measured? We source our data for the monthly averages from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Learn more about COLI research methodology.Īdditionally, we calculate our MYMOVE cost of living grade from each city by comparing the COLI data set to an American’s average monthly expenses. The COLI collects data at the local level from independent researchers for over 60 goods and services. The C2ER has been publishing quarterly Cost of Living Index (COLI) reports since 1968. We sourced our core cost of living data from the Council for Community and Economic Research’s (C2ER) Cost of Living Index.
