USA Cost of Living Compare US cities and states with official data

Compare the cost of living between two cities

Pick where you live now and where you might move. You get the salary that keeps the same standard of living, the difference in typical rent, and a full breakdown by category.

Your comparison

18% matches BEA's average basket. Set your own share if housing takes more or less of your budget.

How the calculation works

We use the Bureau of Economic Analysis's Regional Price Parities: one price level per metro area, where the US average is 100. Austin's is 98.1 and San Diego's is 111.9, so prices in San Diego are 111.9 ÷ 98.1 − 1 = 14.1% higher, and $75,000 in Austin is worth about $85,600 in San Diego.

That assumes an average household's spending, where housing is about 18% of the budget. If housing takes a bigger share of your budget, for example because you rent in an expensive city, move the housing slider and we reweight the comparison using BEA's housing index. The result then becomes our estimate rather than BEA's published figure, and we label it that way.

Taxes are not included. Full methodology.

Compare two states

The state comparisons people search for most. Any other pair works too: /compare/state-vs-state.

More state comparisons

Popular city comparisons

From New York, NY

From Chicago, IL

From Los Angeles, CA

From Washington, DC

From Austin, TX

From Dallas, TX

From Houston, TX

From Miami, FL

From Atlanta, GA

From Boston, MA

From Philadelphia, PA

From San Francisco, CA

From Phoenix, AZ

From Seattle, WA

From Denver, CO

From Portland, OR

More comparisons