Cost of Living Comparator

Cost-of-living comparisons fail when they average everything equally — the truth is that housing (38% of spending, varying 4× between metros) IS the comparison, while groceries and gas vary modestly everywhere. This comparator weights categories the way budgets actually work, adjusts for whether you're exposed to destination housing prices, and produces the one number relocation decisions need: the equivalent salary.

The Tiers, Roughly

Read the housing column and the story writes itself: a Chicago→SF move needs +60%+ salary to tread water; SF→Kansas City banks half a salary at equal lifestyle. Remote workers arbitraging the gap invented a demographic.

What the Index Misses (Layer These Separately)

• State and local taxes — the State Tax Comparator handles income/property/sales; a cheap-index city in a high-tax state (or vice versa: no-tax Texas with high property tax) can move the verdict ±5%.
• Salary adjustment: employers' geo-pay bands typically offset 40–70% of COL differences, not 100% — get the destination offer before celebrating the index.
• Your fixed lines travel free: streaming, phone, debt payments — the more of your budget is location-independent, the less any index matters (the housing-situation toggle approximates this).
• The unpriced ledger: family proximity, career density, weather, schools (District tool) — the honest role of COL math is to price the financial side so those get weighed against a real number.

How to Use the Comparator

1. Pick tiers, salary, and your housing exposure.
2. Read the equivalent salary — the offer-evaluation number — and the housing line that drives it.
3. Layer the state-tax comparison, then the Moving Cost tool for the one-time toll. Three tools, one honest relocation ledger.

Frequently Asked Questions

How accurate are metro-tier indices vs city-specific data?

Tiers capture the decision-grade truth (SF vs Midwest isn't close); within-tier differences run ±5-8%. For the final call on a specific offer, price YOUR actual basket: the exact neighborhood's rent/homes, your commute, your childcare — this tool sizes the ballpark those numbers land in.

My employer offered a 10% bump to move to a +30% city — normal?

Common, and now you can price it: geo-bands under-adjust deliberately (they price labor markets, not living costs). The equivalent-salary figure is your counter-anchor; some of the gap returns as career-density option value, which is a real but personal valuation.

Do COL differences matter if I own my home outright?

Far less — the housing toggle models this. Owners moving cheap-to-expensive get hit twice (selling low, buying high); expensive-to-cheap owners harvest the arbitrage. Property taxes and insurance still travel with the new home's price.

Why do groceries barely differ but housing varies 4×?

Goods travel; land doesn't. National supply chains price cereal within ±15% everywhere, while housing prices local land scarcity, zoning and wages. Every COL story is a housing story wearing a shopping cart.

Is moving somewhere cheap actually a good FIRE strategy?

It's the single biggest lever in the FIRE toolkit — the same portfolio supports a 30-40% higher lifestyle across tiers (see the FIRE calculator). The caveats are the unpriced ledger: healthcare access, community, and whether cheap-today stays cheap (Austin's decade says not always).

How should couples with two careers run this?

Both salaries through the equivalent math, plus the career-market reality: one partner's field may not exist in the cheap city. Dual-career moves price option value, not just indices — the math frames the conversation; it doesn't finish it.

Is my information private?

Yes — every figure computes locally in your browser.

Weight housing honestly, layer the taxes, demand the destination offer in writing — then let the unpriced ledger (people, weather, ambition) argue against a real number instead of a vibe. That's what the comparison was always for.