Cost of Living Comparison 2026: How to Compare Two Cities
Comparing job offers or planning a move between cities means comparing what your money buys in each place. A $90,000 salary in one city can outrank $110,000 in another once rent, groceries, and taxes are counted. Here is how to make the comparison honestly, using the same cost-of-living index method the major calculators use.
What a cost-of-living index actually is
A cost-of-living index prices a basket of common goods and services — housing, groceries, transportation, utilities, health care — in each location and expresses the result as a number where 100 equals the national average. A city at 120 is about 20% more expensive than average; a city at 85 is about 15% cheaper. Because the basket is fixed, the ratio between two cities' indexes tells you how much more (or less) it costs to live the same lifestyle in one versus the other.
The salary adjustment formula
The core math is a ratio: needed salary = current salary × (target index ÷ current index). If you earn $80,000 in a city at index 100 and the target city is at 125, you need $80,000 × 1.25 = $100,000 to keep the same purchasing power. Earn more than that and the move is a raise in real terms; earn less and it is effectively a pay cut even if the nominal number is higher.
Run your exact numbers with the cost of living calculator: enter your salary and each city's index to see the required salary, the dollar gap, and the percentage change in one screen.
Housing is the elephant
Housing is the largest single line item in the basket and usually the biggest difference between cities. An index that is 25 points above average in a metro is typically driven almost entirely by rent and home prices. If you will own rather than rent, run the rent affordability calculator or a mortgage payment calculator with the new city's prices, because your housing number sets the floor for everything else.
Taxes are not in the index
Cost-of-living indexes price goods and services, not state and local income taxes. Two cities can share an index of 110 while one state taxes income at 6% and the other at 0%. Always layer a take-home pay calculator on top of the index comparison: the offer that looks smaller can win after state taxes, and vice versa.
What the index misses
Indexes average everything and smooth over real differences. A city's overall index can look reasonable while its rents are extreme and groceries are cheap, or vice versa — the basket hides what matters for your own budget. If housing is 40% of your spending, weight the housing numbers far more than the headline index. And lifestyle is not priced at all: a longer commute, better weather, or family proximity has real value the index will never capture. Use the index for the money part, then decide the rest on what you value.
Run the numbers
Start with the cost of living calculator for the index comparison, then layer the take-home pay calculator for state taxes, the rent affordability calculator for housing, and the inflation calculator to see what any salary difference is worth a decade out.
Sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — Consumer Price Index methodology; major cost-of-living index publishers (NerdWallet, BestPlaces) using CPI-style baskets.