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TrueCOLA Project, the true cost of living: a laptop showing cost of living by state, household income against essential costs, and essential cost categories, for 50 states, 435 districts, and more than 26,000 ZIP codes.

August 2026 · Complete report

Download the full report

The complete Margin Report covers all 50 states and all 435 congressional districts: income, essential costs, and the monthly margin, for seven household types on renter and homeowner tracks.

Every month is a free PDF, with a free AI Companion file beside it. Click a button and the file downloads. No email address, no account, and no sign-up.

Latest report

August 2026 Margin Report

The designed report for reading and printing. PDF, 1.5 MB.

Download the August 2026 PDFDownload the AI Companion

AI Companion: Text file, 2.2 MB. The same month as one file any AI can read. Drag the file into the AI you use and ask it whatever you wish. The report becomes your conversation about the cost of living where you live. About the AI Companion · Verify a file

Earlier months

Prefer to read it online? The interactive August 2026 report is free too. District pages: current month · past months.

TrueCOLA report text and computed figures are licensed Creative Commons Zero (CC0 1.0). Zillow rent data remains subject to Zillow terms and is labeled wherever it appears.