PlainCost
Home / Move Cost Calculator

What Would My Move Really Cost?

Enter your current city, target city, and income. You get your equivalent income in the new city, a side-by-side breakdown by housing, goods, and services, where the target ranks among all 387 U.S. metros, and the closest-cost alternatives, all from BEA data, nothing typed in. See our methodology .

What you get

  • Income equivalent - what you would need to earn in the target city for the same purchasing power
  • Category breakdown - overall, housing, goods, and services costs compared side by side
  • National rank - where the target city falls among all 387 U.S. metro areas by cost
  • Nearest alternatives - four metros with nearly identical costs, so you can compare options
  • Shareable link - the result URL captures your inputs so you can share or revisit

All figures come directly from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis Regional Price Parities (2026-08-11 release). No editor types in any number.

Frequently asked questions

How is the equivalent income calculated?

The adjusted income uses the Bureau of Economic Analysis formula: income × (target city RPP ÷ current city RPP). For example, if your current metro has an RPP of 92 and the target has an RPP of 107, you would need roughly 16% more income to maintain the same standard of living. Every figure on this page comes directly from BEA's published RPP tables, no editor has typed in any number.

What does the national cost rank mean?

The rank shows where the target city falls among all 387 U.S. metro areas tracked by BEA, ordered from most expensive (rank 1) to least expensive. A rank of 50 means the city is among the top 50 priciest metros nationally. This gives you an immediate sense of how expensive your target city is relative to the full U.S. market.

What are the nearest-cost alternatives?

These are the metro areas with the most similar overall RPP to your target city, metros where your purchasing power would be almost identical. They are useful if you are flexible on destination and want to compare nearby-priced options. The side-by-side income figures show what you would need in each alternative at your current income.

What are Regional Price Parities (RPP)?

RPPs are price indexes published annually by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. An RPP of 100 means prices are exactly at the national average; 110 means 10% above average; 90 means 10% below. They cover overall cost of living, goods, services, and rents separately for every major metro area in the United States.

Does this account for taxes?

No. This tool estimates purchasing-power differences based on cost of living (prices of goods, services, and housing). State and local income taxes, property taxes, and sales taxes are not included. Consider pairing this with a tax-comparison tool for a complete relocation picture.

Download the compiled Regional Price Parities extract cited on this page: regional-price-parities.csv (CC BY 4.0). Method notes live on /methodology and /data.

Every figure on PlainCost is rendered directly from BEA Regional Price Parity source data, no number is typed in by an editor. All cost-of-living figures are drawn directly from BEA Regional Price Parities source data. No figure on this page is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, our changelog, or report a data error. Data current as of 2026-08-11. Rankings measure the published cost-of-living index only; we don't recommend where to live or rate any metro's quality of life.