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September 2026 report · top 25 destinations

Cost of Living in 25 Popular Places to Move

See take-home pay, required costs, and what is left each month for seven household types, renting or owning. Pick a city to start.

Why these 25: they come up again and again in recent moving reports, such as Redfin’s quarterly study of where house hunters look (opens in a new tab). They are listed A to Z. TrueCOLA does not rank them. Each city page shows the figures for the area around the main city’s City Hall.

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Not all relocation calculators are created equal

Choosing where to live is a major financial decision. Before relying on any cost-of-living figure, ask five questions. Here is how TrueCOLA answers each one. Every answer is backed by our published methodology, which documents each data source, every calculation step, and the audit checks run on every report.

Where does the data come from?
From published government sources, including the Census Bureau, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Internal Revenue Service, the Social Security Administration, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, and the Bureau of Economic Analysis. The only non-government source is the Zillow Observed Rent Index for market rents, which is credited wherever it appears.
Are taxes included?
Yes. Federal income tax, Social Security and Medicare payroll taxes, and each state’s income tax are subtracted, so places are compared on take-home pay rather than gross pay.
How current is it?
Every figure is updated monthly and published the next business day after the Bureau of Labor Statistics releases the Consumer Price Index.
How local is it?
Figures are published for the nation, all 50 states, and 35,672 ZIP codes, using one consistent method everywhere.
Can it be verified?
Yes. The methodology and all corrections are public, and the data files are free to download. Each month’s source files are recorded with a digital fingerprint that changes if a single byte changes, and any downloaded report can be checked on our verification page.
Every month
TrueCOLA publishes this margin every month, covering 35,672 ZIP codes and all 50 states.

More ways to compare

How the calculator works

Select a household type. The calculator shows that household’s published figures from the September 2026 report: gross monthly income, modeled taxes, net monthly income, required costs for housing, healthcare, and other essentials, and the monthly surplus or shortfall that remains. The margin is net income minus required costs. The margin is not an inflation rate and does not replace the CPI.

To evaluate a move, look up where you live now and note its surplus or shortfall, then look up the place you are considering. Because every place is calculated the same way, the two results can be compared directly.

To see an estimate based on your own income, move the slider to your gross monthly pay. That calculation runs only in your browser, is labeled as your estimate, and is never sent or saved. The published figures use the renter track; the calculator also shows three homeowner tracks for every place.

The basket is a market-price standard: current asking rent and unsubsidized average marketplace premiums. It can run above what a settled household pays, and the methodology states this.

For full details, see the methodology page. Rent data: Data Provided by Zillow Group.