Cost of Living Estimator by ZIP Code
Every state and DC · data reviewed September 15, 2026
Estimates what a ZIP code costs a household each month or year, in dollars, and the pre-tax income it takes; with your income, what is left and how it compares to the median; optionally against a second ZIP. AboutLess
In plain words. Enter a ZIP code, your household, and whether you rent or buy, and pick the home's size; your income is optional, and a second ZIP can be compared. The tool builds the month at each place: rent for the bedrooms you need from HUD's figure for that ZIP, or a mortgage on what a typical home there is worth today with a new buyer's property tax, insurance, upkeep, and utilities; federal, state, and payroll tax computed on your wages; and the rest of the month either as a modest county budget or as what households at your income typically spend, scaled to the metro's prices. What is left is the number to compare, and the ZIP's median household income shows where yours sits.
Why it matters. A job offer in another state, a move to be near family, or a retirement-adjacent relocation all turn on one question: after the rent and the taxes there, is there more or less left than here? An index cannot answer that. Dollars on your own income can.
An example. Two adults, two children, $150,000 a year, renting three bedrooms: −$2,087 left in Naperville, DuPage County against −$781 in Sarasota, Sarasota County, a difference of $1,306 a month, most of it state income tax.
Where it stops. Every state. State income tax follows each state's 2026 rates, deductions, and exemptions for wages, with no local wage taxes, earned income credit, or other credits beyond the child tax credit; property tax outside Illinois, Florida, Texas, and California is a county effective rate that can understate a new buyer's bill; children are priced at EPI's assumed ages, with no infants. Local wage taxes, itemized deductions, marketplace coverage, Medicare, and anything you save are not modeled; health care assumes an employer plan. Property tax and homeowners insurance are county or state averages, not any one city's or insurer's; upkeep is a one percent rule of thumb. Typical spending is a national survey scaled to the metro, not your own budget. Everything it leaves out.
Any ZIP code in the fifty states or DC, or start typing a city.
Child care and the child tax credit follow this. Four is the most the budget data covers.
Set by the household; change it freely. Renters get HUD's rent for that size in the ZIP; buyers get what a typical home of that size there is worth.
Leave blank to see what living there costs and the income it takes. Enter wages for everyone in the household to see what is left.
Adjust the assumptions
Leave blank for HUD's fair market rent in the ZIP, or enter a listing's rent.
Rents are HUD fair market rents for fiscal 2027 by ZIP and bedroom count; a typical home's value is Zillow's index for the ZIP by bedroom count as of July 2026; property tax is a new buyer's bill from the county's average rate after the homestead exemption in Illinois and Florida, the Comptroller's composite rate in Texas, the Board of Equalization's county rate in California, and the county's average effective rate from the Census elsewhere; homeowners insurance is the county (Florida, 2026) or state (2022) average premium as a share of value unless a quote is entered; upkeep is an assumption; median household income is the Census median by ZIP. The default budget is a typical lifestyle at the income, what households spend in the BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey for 2024, scaled to the household's size and the metro's 2024 price level; the modest essentials budget is EPI's county figure; every line is brought to August 2026 dollars by its category's consumer price index. Federal and state income tax and payroll tax are computed for wages with the standard deduction, the child tax credit with its phaseout and refundable part, and payroll tax per worker on the wage split entered; the modest budget's health line is the worker's share of an employer plan. Not modeled: local wage taxes, itemized deductions, marketplace coverage, Medicare, the earned income credit, and retirement or other savings. A budget, not a quote. Educational, not advice.
This is a simplified model, not your actual tax return or plan. It only knows what you type in, leaves out rules that may apply to you, and cannot weigh the other facts and trade-offs a real decision depends on. Before you act, talk with a professional who knows your whole situation.
Educational only, not investment, tax, or legal advice. Results are hypothetical estimates that vary with each use and over time and are not guaranteed accurate or complete. Using this tool creates no client relationship with Considerate Capital, and the site that linked here is not affiliated with it. By using it you agree to the tool terms.