Methodology
Updated November 2026
Every number on this site is computed when the site is built, from public government data, and written into the page. Nothing is estimated per visitor. When a figure for a city is missing or unreliable we use a figure for a larger area and label it on the page.
Local cost index
Every city page leads with our local cost index (a CostLiving estimate; US average = 100). It starts from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis Regional Price Parities (RPP) for 2024. These measure price levels for each metro area and for the rural part of each state. We change only one thing: housing.
- Local housing. We take BEA's housing index for the city's area and scale it by how the city's rent compares with the area: local housing = BEA housing index × (city median gross rent ÷ area reference rent). The area reference rent is the population-weighted average median gross rent of every Census place in that BEA area. A city whose rent equals the area average gets exactly BEA's housing index. If the city's rent figure is missing or has a wide margin of error, we use the county's, then the area's.
- Everything else unchanged. Goods, utilities and other services are BEA's official figures for the area, exactly as published.
- Combine. The four categories are combined with weights that reproduce BEA's own all-items index: goods 34.9%, housing 18.3%, utilities 0.3%, other services 46.5%. We estimate them from all 388 metro areas (R² 0.95001).
- How close it stays to BEA. We do not re-scale anything. Averaged over the people in each area, the local index lands within 0.574 points of BEA's official all-items figure in a typical area. The largest gaps, up to 12.15 points, are in very high-housing California metros such as San Jose, where BEA's own combination of categories differs most from a single national weighting.
BEA's own index for the area is shown directly under each local index. The budget, salary equivalents, rankings, percentiles and comparisons all use the local index. State pages and the state ranking use BEA's official state figures.
- Area: a city belongs to the metro area (2023 OMB delineation) of the county holding most of its population. Cities in micropolitan areas or outside any core-based area use the nonmetropolitan portion of their state.
- Resort and outlier towns: when a city's median home value is at least twice its area's, or its median rent at least 1.6 times, the page carries an “About this estimate” note. Goods and services prices still come from the wider area there, so the estimate may understate local costs.
Small places and margins of error
Census ACS figures are survey estimates with margins of error. For every figure we compute the coefficient of variation (CV = margin of error ÷ 1.645 ÷ estimate). Above 30% the figure is low reliability: we still show it, tagged “wide margin”, but we do not give it a rating (such as “Affordable”), do not quote it in summaries or answers, and use the county figure instead for the local index and budget. Places with fewer than 2,500 residents carry a note about wide margins.
Modelled monthly budget
The budget is a modelled estimate of basic monthly costs, not observed spending. It covers three households: Single adult (1-bedroom home); Couple, no children (2-bedroom home); Family of 4 (2 adults, 2 children) (3-bedroom home). National spending levels come from the BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey 2025 (annual mean spending by size of consumer unit: one person, two persons, four persons), divided by 12 and scaled by the matching local price index.
Housing = median rent for the bedroom count × (median contract rent ÷ median gross rent)
Census ACS median gross rent by bedrooms. Gross rent includes tenant-paid utilities, so we scale it by the area's contract-to-gross rent ratio to avoid counting utilities twice.
Utilities = state kWh per household × household-size factor × state electricity price + (CE utilities, fuels & public services − CE electricity) × RPP utilities ÷ 100
kWh per household and price: EIA-861M, trailing 12 months. Household-size factor: EIA RECS 2020 table CE2.1 (single 0.679, couple 1.006, family 1.235 × the average home).
Food = CE food at home × RPP goods ÷ 100
Transportation = gallons per month × latest local regular gasoline price + (CE transportation − CE gasoline, other fuels & motor oil) × RPP all items ÷ 100
Gallons per month = CE gasoline spending ÷ 12 ÷ the US average regular gasoline price in 2025 (EIA, $3.097/gal).
Health care = CE health care × RPP other services ÷ 100
Clothing, personal care & supplies = (CE apparel & services + CE housekeeping supplies) × RPP goods ÷ 100 + CE personal care × RPP other services ÷ 100
National baselines (2025, per month)
| Category | Single adult | Couple | Family of 4 | CE items |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Food at home | $282 | $521 | $743 | food_home |
| Other utilities (gas/heating fuel, water, trash, phone, internet) | $160 | $265 | $321 | utilities − electricity |
| Transportation excl. fuel | $482 | $967 | $1,254 | transportation − gasoline |
| Gasoline (gallons per month) | 35.4 | 66.9 | 96.8 | gasoline ÷ US avg price |
| Health care | $352 | $651 | $607 | health |
| Clothing & household supplies | $120 | $242 | $320 | apparel + housekeeping |
| Personal care | $48 | $88 | $105 | personal_care |
Not included: income and payroll taxes, child care, savings and retirement, entertainment and travel, debt payments. “Couple” uses CE two-person consumer units and “family of 4” uses four-person consumer units, which are not all couples or parents with children.
Salary equivalent
US-equivalent salary = local salary × 100 ÷ RPP. Between two places: salary in B = salary in A × RPP(B) ÷ RPP(A). This adjusts for price levels only, not for taxes.
Affordability bands
Rent burden is the Census ACS table B25071 median gross rent as a percentage of household income, for renter households (30% is the HUD cost-burden line). Home value-to-income is the median home value divided by the median household income of all households. The band cut-offs below are our editorial choice.
| Rent as % of renter income | Band |
|---|---|
| under 20% | Very affordable |
| 20–25% | Affordable |
| 25–30% | Moderate |
| 30–35% | Expensive |
| 35% or more | Very expensive |
| Home value ÷ income | Band |
|---|---|
| under 3 | Very affordable |
| 3–4 | Affordable |
| 4–5 | Moderate |
| 5–6.5 | Expensive |
| 6.5 or more | Very expensive |
Missing data and fallbacks
- ACS figures: city (Census place) → county → state.
- Rents by bedroom: Census ACS median gross rent by bedrooms is the primary figure. Small-sample medians that are implausible (outside 0.55–1.9× the area's overall median rent, or falling as bedrooms rise by more than 15%) are replaced by the county figure, or modelled from the 2-bedroom figure × the national ratio for that size. Where HUD Fair Market Rents are available they are shown alongside as a second column.
- Gasoline: EIA publishes weekly prices for 9 states; other states use their PADD region.
- Electricity: state average residential price (August 2026).
- Inflation: BLS CPI-U for the Census region (Northeast, Midwest, South, West). The section is hidden if the data is unavailable.
- Census top-coded values are shown with a “+” (for example $2,000,000+).
Update schedule
The full dataset is rebuilt monthly. Gasoline and electricity prices refresh weekly. BEA RPPs are released each December, ACS 5-year estimates each December, the Consumer Expenditure Survey each September and HUD FMRs each autumn.