What does this ZIP code cost to live in, and what does your income leave?

The facts, in one place.

Six quotable sentences on what a move actually changes, in dollars.

1. Most cost-of-living tools give an index. This one gives dollars: the month's rent or mortgage, taxes, health care, child care, food, transportation, and other necessities at two ZIP codes, and what a stated income leaves at each.
2. Housing is the line that differs within a county, so it is the line taken by ZIP: HUD's fair market rent for the ZIP by bedroom count, and for buyers what a typical home there is worth today, with property tax as a new buyer would be billed where a state's rule is modeled and at the county's average effective rate elsewhere, never the capped median long-time owners report. The other lines are county, state, or national figures, and each row says which.
3. Example: two adults, two children, $150,000 a year, renting three bedrooms. In Naperville, DuPage County (60540) take-home is $10,062 a month, living there costs $12,149, and −$2,087 is left; in Sarasota, Sarasota County (34236) take-home is $10,632, the cost of living $11,413, and −$781 is left.
4. Taxes are computed, not looked up. Florida has no income tax; Illinois takes a flat 4.95% after a $2,925 exemption per person. On the example income that is $570 a month in Illinois and nothing in Florida; on a modest budget the sales tax on necessities adds $87 a month in Naperville against $71 in Sarasota.
5. Child care is the line people forget. For two children it is $2,056 a month in DuPage County and $1,710 in Sarasota County, from each state's market-rate survey, more than food in both places.
6. Buying changes the answer more than moving does. The same family buying a typical three-bedroom, $536,268 in 60540 and $1,927,119 in 34236, at 20 percent down and 6.50%, pays $3,735 and $12,927 a month for the house and a new buyer's property tax, before insurance.

The example month.

Income, the taxes, take-home, the expenses, and what is left, at both ZIPs, with the level each source is published at.

How it is built.

A cost of living is a list of monthly bills, and each bill is published by some agency at some level of geography. The tool takes each one at the finest level that exists rather than pretending everything varies by ZIP. Rent does: the Department of Housing and Urban Development sets a fair market rent for every ZIP code in a metropolitan area, by bedroom count, at the 40th percentile of what standard units go for. Home values do: Zillow's index says what a typical home in the ZIP is worth this month, which is what a buyer pays; the Census median, what owners say their homes are worth averaged over five years, runs well below it and is shown for contrast. Property tax is computed the way a new buyer would be billed where a state's rule is modeled (Illinois, Florida, Texas, California), and at the county's average effective rate elsewhere, because the median bill the Census reports is what long-time owners pay, and it is capped at $10,000 besides. In Illinois the sales tax rate is set by the municipality, so the tool finds the one holding most of the ZIP and uses its rate; in Florida it is the state rate plus the county surtax; elsewhere it is the state rate plus the average local rate.

The rest is county or broader, and comes two ways. Typical spending, the default, takes what households at the income actually spend from the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Consumer Expenditure Survey, by income bracket, scaled to the household's size and to the metropolitan area's price level from the Bureau of Economic Analysis; it includes restaurants, entertainment, and gifts, which is why a ZIP full of high earners costs more to live in than its county budget suggests. The modest budget, by choice, takes child care, food, transportation, and other necessities from the Economic Policy Institute's Family Budget Calculator, which builds a modest but adequate budget for ten family types in every county from the USDA food plan, the Center for Neighborhood Technology's transportation index, and each state's child care market survey. Taxes are not taken from anyone's table. The federal return is run on the household's wages by the same engine the site's other tools use, Illinois's flat rate is applied after its exemptions, Florida has none, and the employee share of Social Security and Medicare tax is taken off the top. What is left is income less all of it.

Methodology.

1. Inputs. A ZIP code, or two to compare; one or two adults and up to four children; renting or buying; the home's size, a studio to five or more bedrooms, set by the household's shape unless changed (one bedroom for one adult, two for a couple, one more for every two children). Yearly wages are optional: without them the tool reports the cost of living and the pre-tax income it takes. Under the assumptions: a price or rent per ZIP, the down payment or equity, the mortgage rate, and the budget basis.
2. Geography. Each ZIP is filed under the county holding the most of its residential addresses, from HUD's USPS crosswalk (the Census land-area relationship where HUD has no record, and Connecticut's towns for its planning regions); when a ZIP crosses county lines the tool says so and gives the share. The municipality, for Illinois sales tax and the place name, is the one holding most of the ZIP's land.
3. Dollars. Every source is brought to August 2026 dollars before anything is added: the BLS survey's 2024 lines by their category's consumer price index (food at home, food away, medical care, fuels and utilities, apparel, recreation, vehicles and gasoline, transportation services), its income brackets by average hourly earnings, and EPI's 2025 lines by the food and all-items indexes, all from FRED. Rents, home values, and taxes are already this year's.
4. Housing. Renting: HUD's Small Area Fair Market Rent for the ZIP and bedroom count, fiscal 2027. Buying: the price entered, or what a typical home of that size in the ZIP is worth from Zillow's index by bedroom count (July 2026); where the size index is missing for a ZIP, the all-homes value times the county's median ratio for that size; where Zillow has no index at all, the ACS median scaled by the county's Zillow-to-Census ratio. A 30-year fixed payment on the balance after the down payment or equity.
5. Property tax. A new buyer's bill where a state's rule is modeled, at the county's 2024 average rate. Illinois: the price at the statutory assessment level (one third; 10 percent in Cook), times the state equalization multiplier, less the general homestead exemption, at the county's average residential rate from the Department of Revenue's statistics. Florida: the county's average millage from the Department of Revenue's county profiles, school levies on the price less $25,000 and the other levies on the price less the second homestead exemption as well. A county average, not any one city's rate; the Census median owners there pay is shown for contrast. States without their own table use the county's average effective rate, aggregate taxes paid over aggregate value from the Census, which is what owners there pay on average and can understate a new buyer's bill where assessments are capped; California uses each county's average tax rate on the purchase price from the Board of Equalization; Texas uses a composite of the county's adopted rate, its school districts' rates weighted by value, and its cities' rates weighted by the county's share of value inside cities, from the Comptroller's 2025 reports, with the $140,000 school homestead exemption. Checked against an independent tally of actual Winnetka bills, 2.44 percent of value, which the tool's 2.45 percent matched.
6. Owner's other lines. Homeowners insurance as a share of the price: in Florida the county's average homeowners premium including wind from the Office of Insurance Regulation's July 2026 stability report over the county's typical home value; elsewhere the NAIC 2022 state average premium over the state's typical value in the same year. Upkeep at 1 percent of the price a year, an assumption. Utilities (electricity, gas, water) from the BLS survey for the income, at the metro's price level, in both views; renters' HUD rents already include those, but not phone service, so every household carries a phone line from the survey. Insurance can be replaced by a quote under the assumptions.
7. Health care. Typical spending takes what households at the income actually pay for premiums, care, and drugs from the BLS survey. The modest budget takes a working household's premium as the average worker contribution to an employer plan in KFF's 2025 Employer Health Benefits Survey, single or family, plus out-of-pocket care and drugs from the BLS survey. A household buying its own coverage pays more; the marketplace and its premium tax credit are not modeled.
8. Mortgage rate. The slider starts at Freddie Mac's average 30-year rate for the latest survey week, stamped in the rates table.
9. Income taxes. Federal: the standard deduction, the 2026 brackets, and the child tax credit of $2,200 per child against tax owed (an assumption; the credit's refundable part is not modeled). State: each state's 2026 rates and brackets for single or joint filers on wages after its standard deduction and personal and dependent exemptions, less its personal credits, from the state income tax record (transcribed from the Tax Foundation's 2026 workbook; Illinois checked against its statute, 4.95 percent of wages less $2,925 per person). Local wage taxes, where a state has them, are named on the line and not included. The child tax credit of $2,200 per child phases out by $50 per $1,000 over $400,000 joint or $200,000 otherwise, and up to $1,700 per child is refundable at 15 percent of earnings over $2,500. Payroll: 6.2 percent to the wage base and 1.45 percent on all wages, per worker on the wage split entered for two adults (half each unless changed, since the wage base is per worker), plus 0.9 percent on the household's combined wages over the filing status's threshold.
10. Sales tax. In the modest budget, the local general merchandise rate applied to EPI's “other necessities” line: the municipality holding most of the ZIP in Illinois, the county in Florida, the state plus average local rate elsewhere; groceries are taxed at the state's grocery rate in the states that tax them and untaxed elsewhere. Typical spending needs no sales tax line, since the survey's figures are what households paid, tax included.
11. The modest essentials budget. By choice under the assumptions: EPI's 2026 edition, in 2025 dollars, for the family type: child care from the state survey, food from the USDA low-cost plan, transportation from CNT, other necessities from the Consumer Expenditure Survey, with the sales tax on the last. EPI's own housing, health, and tax lines are not used; the tool computes those.
12. Typical lifestyle at this income. The default: how households at the income tend to spend, not the least they could spend in the ZIP. The BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey's 2024 means by income-before-taxes bracket, interpolated between bracket means at the entered income and held flat above the top bracket; scaled to the household's size by the square root of its ratio to the bracket's average size (an assumption); and scaled to the county's metropolitan area by BEA's 2024 regional price parities, goods for food at home, vehicles, fuel, and household goods, services for the rest, utilities for utilities, with non-metro counties at the national nonmetropolitan average. Lines: food, transportation, health care as households actually pay for it, utilities for owners (rents here already include them), household goods and clothing, and entertainment, education, and the rest. Child care stays EPI's county figure, for children at EPI's assumed ages (one child is 4; two are 4 and 8), with no infants or toddlers, whose care costs more. Shelter and savings are excluded; the sales tax paid is inside the survey's figures, so no separate sales tax line is shown.
13. Income against the median. The ACS median household income for the ZIP (the county's where suppressed) is shown beside the entered income, and the budget is re-run at that median so the reader can see what a typical household there has left. The income needed to cover the estimate can exceed the median because the median household is smaller, often without child care, often a long-time owner with a lower tax bill, usually insured through an employer, and measured in earlier years' dollars; the tool says so when it happens.
14. Validation. Pinned to hand-worked cases that fail the build if they drift: the payment formula, payroll tax at and above the wage base, Illinois's flat tax, California's single filer at $100,000, both Illinois property tax cases, the Florida and Texas homestead arithmetic, the survey interpolation, and the default home size; every state table carries its vintages and is checked for coverage, and the income-to-cover figure is checked to break even, to the dollar, in every state.
15. Not modeled. Local wage taxes, itemized deductions, the earned income credit, marketplace coverage and its credit, Medicare, retirement savings, homeowners association dues, and children of other ages than EPI's. Every state and the District of Columbia. Educational, not advice.

Sources.

1. 1. U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Fair Market Rents, fiscal year 2027 (FY27_FMRs.xlsx) and Small Area Fair Market Rents (FY27_safmrs.xlsx). Monthly rent by bedroom count for every county and, in metropolitan areas, every ZIP code: the 40th percentile gross rent for a standard-quality unit. Retrieved September 14, 2026; verified September 14, 2026.
2. 2. U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates 2020 to 2024, tables B25077 (median value), B25064 (median gross rent), B25103 (median real estate taxes paid), B19013 (median household income), by county and by ZIP code tabulation area. The median household income in each ZIP (the county's where suppressed), against which the entered income is set and at which the budget is taken when no income is given; the median home value owners report and the median tax they pay, shown for contrast only; the aggregate taxes paid over aggregate value by county (B25090 over B25082), the property tax fallback where no state table is built; and population by ZIP (B01003), which ranks a city's ZIPs in the search. Retrieved September 14, 2026; verified September 14, 2026.
3. 3. U.S. Census Bureau, 2020 ZIP Code Tabulation Area to county and to place relationship files. Which county and which municipality hold most of each ZIP's land, so a ZIP is matched to one county budget and one sales tax rate. Retrieved September 14, 2026; verified September 14, 2026.
4. 4. Economic Policy Institute, Family Budget Calculator, 2026 edition: full county dataset and technical documentation. Yearly food (USDA low-cost food plan by region), transportation (CNT Housing and Transportation Index by county), health care (lowest-cost bronze premium plus out-of-pocket), other necessities, and child care (state market-rate surveys) for ten family types in every county, in 2025 dollars. Retrieved September 14, 2026; verified September 14, 2026.
5. 5. Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (FRED), mirroring the Bureau of Labor Statistics, CPI-U by category (all items, food at home, food away from home, medical care, fuels and utilities, apparel, recreation, education and communication, gasoline, new and used vehicles, transportation services) and average hourly earnings, monthly. The factors that bring the BLS survey's 2024 lines and EPI's 2025 lines to the latest month's dollars, category by category, and the BLS income brackets to current wages, so the tool adds like dollars. Retrieved September 15, 2026; verified September 15, 2026.
6. 6. U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, HUD USPS ZIP Code Crosswalk Files, ZIP to county, 2025 Q2 (API). Which county holds the most residential addresses in each ZIP, and the share, so a ZIP is filed under the county where its residents live rather than where its land is. Retrieved September 15, 2026; verified September 15, 2026.
7. 7. Tax Foundation, Sales taxes on groceries by state, 2026. Which states include groceries in the sales tax base in 2026 and at what state rate. Retrieved September 15, 2026; verified September 15, 2026.
8. 8. U.S. Code, 26 U.S.C. § 24 — Child tax credit: the phaseout in subsection (b) and the refundable portion in subsection (d). The $50 per $1,000 phaseout above $400,000 joint or $200,000 otherwise, and the additional child tax credit of up to $1,700 per child at 15 percent of earned income over $2,500. Retrieved September 15, 2026; verified September 15, 2026.
9. 9. Tax Foundation, State and Local Sales Tax Rates, Midyear 2026. Each state's sales tax rate and its population-weighted average local rate as of July 1, 2026, the rate applied to a modest budget's other necessities in every state without its own rate file. Retrieved September 15, 2026; verified September 15, 2026.
10. 10. California State Board of Equalization, Annual Report 2023-24 (Publication 306): average property tax rates by county. Each California county's average tax rate on assessed value, 1.000 to 1.243 percent, applied to a new buyer's purchase price under Proposition 13. Retrieved September 15, 2026; verified September 15, 2026.
11. 11. U.S. Census Bureau, TIGER/Line 2024 county subdivisions, Connecticut (tl_2024_09_cousub), and the 2020 ZCTA to county subdivision relationship file. Which of Connecticut's nine planning regions each town, and so each ZIP, belongs to, since the 2020 ZCTA-to-county file still carries the counties Connecticut retired in 2022. Retrieved September 15, 2026; verified September 15, 2026.
12. 12. Illinois Department of Revenue, Sales tax rate machine-readable file, ordinance level (ordmache-current.txt), rates effective July 1, 2026. The combined general merchandise sales tax rate for every Illinois municipality and, county-wide, outside municipalities. Retrieved September 14, 2026; verified September 14, 2026.
13. 13. Florida Department of Revenue, Form DR-15DSS, Discretionary Sales Surtax Information, calendar year 2025. The county surtax added to Florida's 6 percent state sales tax in each county. Retrieved September 14, 2026; verified September 14, 2026.
14. 14. Zillow Research, Zillow Home Value Index (ZHVI) by ZIP code: all homes, mid tier, smoothed, seasonally adjusted, monthly. What a typical home in the ZIP is worth today, the buyer's default price. The Census median is what owners say their homes are worth, averaged over five years, and runs well below what homes trade for. Retrieved September 14, 2026; verified September 14, 2026.
15. 15. Illinois Department of Revenue, Illinois Property Tax Statistics, 2024: Table 8, average tax rates by county and property class; Table 16, local assessments as equalized, with the final state multiplier. Each county's average residential tax rate on equalized assessed value and its state equalization multiplier, from which a new buyer's Illinois property tax bill is computed. Retrieved September 14, 2026; verified September 14, 2026.
16. 16. Illinois General Assembly, 35 ILCS 200/9-145 — Statutory level of assessment; 35 ILCS 200/15-175 — General homestead exemption. That property outside Cook County is assessed at one third of fair cash value (Cook classifies residential property at 10 percent under its own ordinance), and the general homestead exemption of $10,000 in Cook, $8,000 in a county contiguous to it, and $6,000 elsewhere. Retrieved September 14, 2026; verified September 14, 2026.
17. 17. Florida Department of Revenue, Property Tax Oversight, County property tax profiles, 2024 roll (2024_County_Profiles.pdf): ad valorem taxes levied by county, school, municipal, and other authorities, and county and school taxable values. Each Florida county's average millage: school levies over the school taxable value plus every other levy over the county taxable value. A county average, not the rate of any one city. Retrieved September 14, 2026; verified September 14, 2026.
18. 18. Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts, Property Tax Assistance Division, 2025 tax rates and levies: county, school district, city, and statewide total rate reports (xlsx). Each Texas county's adopted rate, its school districts' adopted rates weighted by taxable value, and its cities' rates weighted by the share of the county's value inside cities, combined into a composite rate for a new buyer. Retrieved September 15, 2026; verified September 15, 2026.
19. 19. Texas Legislature, Tex. Tax Code § 11.13(b) — Residence homestead exemption from school district taxes, $140,000 (S.B. 4, 2025). The $140,000 of a homestead's value exempt from school district taxes from the 2025 tax year. Retrieved September 15, 2026; verified September 15, 2026.
20. 20. Florida Legislature, Fla. Stat. § 196.031 — Exemption of homesteads. The $25,000 homestead exemption against all levies and the further $25,000 against non-school levies on assessed value between $50,000 and $75,000. Retrieved September 14, 2026; verified September 14, 2026.
21. 21. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer Expenditure Surveys, 2024: Table 1203, income before taxes — annual expenditure means by income bracket. What households in each income bracket actually spend on food, transportation, health care, utilities, household goods and clothing, and entertainment, education, and the rest: the tool's 'typical spending' lines, before local price scaling. Retrieved September 14, 2026; verified September 14, 2026.
22. 22. U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, Regional price parities by metropolitan area (MARPP), 2008 to 2024: all items, goods, housing, utilities, other services. How much more or less goods, utilities, and services cost in each metropolitan area than the national average, used to scale the national spending survey to the ZIP's metro; non-metro counties take the national nonmetropolitan average. Retrieved September 14, 2026; verified September 14, 2026.
23. 23. U.S. Census Bureau, Core based statistical area delineation file, July 2023 (list1_2023.xlsx). Which metropolitan area each county belongs to, for the price parity. Retrieved September 14, 2026; verified September 14, 2026.
24. 24. Florida Office of Insurance Regulation, Property Insurance Stability Report, July 1, 2026: average premiums charged for homeowners and condominium unit owners, by county. Each Florida county's average homeowners premium including wind coverage (total premium over policies in force as of March 31, 2026), turned into a share of the county's typical home value. Retrieved September 15, 2026; verified September 15, 2026.
25. 25. National Association of Insurance Commissioners, via the Insurance Information Institute, Dwelling Fire, Homeowners Owner-Occupied, and Homeowners Tenant and Condominium/Cooperative Unit Owner's Insurance Report: data for 2022; average HO-3 premium by state. The average homeowners premium in each state in 2022 ($1,343 in Illinois), turned into a share of the state's typical home value in December 2022 so the ratio is taken in the premium's own year. Retrieved September 15, 2026; verified September 15, 2026.
26. 26. Freddie Mac, Primary Mortgage Market Survey, weekly history (PMMS_history.csv). The average 30-year fixed rate in the latest survey week, the mortgage rate slider's starting value. Retrieved September 15, 2026; verified September 15, 2026.
27. 27. KFF, 2025 Employer Health Benefits Survey: average annual premiums and worker contributions for single and family coverage. What a covered worker pays toward an employer plan: $1,440 a year for single coverage and $6,850 for family coverage in 2025, the health line's premium when coverage comes through an employer. Retrieved September 15, 2026; verified September 15, 2026.
28. 28. U.S. Code, 26 U.S.C. § 3101 — Rate of tax (employee share of FICA). The 6.2 percent Social Security tax on wages up to the wage base, the 1.45 percent Medicare tax on all wages, and the 0.9 percent additional Medicare tax above $200,000 ($250,000 joint). Retrieved September 14, 2026; verified September 14, 2026.
29. 29. Illinois General Assembly, 35 ILCS 5/201 — Tax imposed; 35 ILCS 5/204 — Standard exemption. Illinois's flat 4.95 percent individual income tax and the $2,925 exemption per person for tax year 2026 (Department bulletin FY 2026-15). Retrieved September 14, 2026; verified September 14, 2026.
30. 30. Florida Legislature, Florida Constitution, Article VII, Section 5 — Estate, inheritance and income taxes. That Florida levies no tax on the income of natural persons. Retrieved September 14, 2026; verified September 14, 2026.
31. 31. Florida Legislature, Fla. Stat. § 212.05 — Sales, storage, use tax. Florida's 6 percent state sales tax rate. Retrieved September 14, 2026; verified September 14, 2026.
32. 32. Tax Foundation, State Individual Income Tax Rates and Brackets, 2026 (2026-State-Individual-Income-Tax-Rates-Brackets.xlsx, the 2026 sheet). Every state's 2026 wage tax: rates and bracket thresholds for single and joint filers, standard deductions, and personal and dependent exemptions or credits, as compiled from the states' own instructions. The nine states with no wage tax: Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, and Wyoming. Retrieved September 15, 2026; verified September 15, 2026.

Revision history.

The record's history.

September 15, 2026

Same day, after release: every source's dollars are brought to the latest month (BLS 2024 lines and EPI 2025 lines by category CPI, the BLS income brackets by wage growth); payroll tax takes the split of wages between two adults (a slider, half by default) and levies the additional Medicare tax on the household's combined wages; the child tax credit phases out above $400,000 joint and $200,000 otherwise and its refundable part counts; renters keep a phone line, which HUD's gross rent excludes; groceries are taxed in the states that tax them; a ZIP is filed under the county holding most of its residential addresses (HUD's crosswalk) and the tool says when it crosses counties; homeowners insurance can be entered; the child care line names EPI's assumed ages; the budget choices are named 'typical lifestyle at this income' and 'modest essentials budget', and the property tax line says 'new buyer' only where a state's rule is modeled.

September 15, 2026

First release, every state and the District of Columbia. A ZIP code or a city, a household of one or two adults and up to four children, renting or buying, and the home's size: rent for that size from HUD's fair market rent for the ZIP, or a mortgage on what a typical home of that size there is worth today (Zillow's index by bedroom count) with a new buyer's property tax (Illinois and Florida from their own county tables, Texas from the Comptroller's rates, California from the Board of Equalization's county rates, elsewhere the county's average effective rate, labeled), homeowners insurance as a share of value, upkeep at one percent, and utilities. Federal, state, and payroll tax computed on wages, each state from the state income tax record. The rest of the month as what households at the income typically spend from the BLS survey scaled to the metro's prices, with EPI's modest budget as a choice. Income is optional: without it the tool reports the cost of living and the pre-tax income it takes, and the household spends like the median household in the ZIP; with it, what is left and the comparison to the median. One ZIP, or two side by side.

Canonical address: https://consideratecapital.com/tools/cost-of-living-by-zip