Meet our newest feature, the Cost of Living Calculator! These pages, like the Rental Market Trends pages, are embedded within search result pages to improve your rental search experience and help you more effectively plan for your move.
What Is the Cost of Living Calculator?
The Cost of Living Calculator is exactly what it sounds like—city-specific pages detailing the average monthly cost of living in a specific area. These pages show the average cost of essentials like rent, utilities, groceries, and healthcare based on data from the Council for Community and Economic Research’s Cost of Living Index and CoStar's Market Trend reports.
How can the Cost of Living Calculator help?
Moving to a new city comes with a lot of unknowns, and the shift in your cost of living can add extra stress. The Cost of Living Calculator can help you budget more effectively for your new place by showing you exactly how your monthly costs will change. Because the cost of living is different in each city, moving can cause a major shift in your finances. Being aware of how your monthly expenses will change with your move can help you save money and avoid culture shock.
How Do I Use the Cost of Living Calculator?
Use the Cost of Living Calculator to understand how you’ll need to adjust your budget in your new home. These pages outline the average costs of different goods and services in a specific city.
The Cost of Living Calculator will do more than just tell you what your monthly expenses in a new city will look like—you can compare your current monthly expenses with the average expenses in the city you’re moving to with the cost of living calculator. All you have to do is input your current location, where you’re moving to, and your annual pre-tax income, and our calculator will give you a comprehensive summary of how your expenses will change when you move.
For example, if you’re moving to Chicago, Illinois, from Atlanta, Georgia, your cost of living will increase by 17.7% after you move. This means that you’ll either need to earn more money to maintain your current standard of living or find ways to cut costs.
However, if you’re moving to Atlanta from Chicago, your cost of living will decrease by 15% after you move. This means that you can earn 15% less in Atlanta and maintain your current standard of living.
Where can I find the Cost of Living Calculator?
The Cost of Living Calculator, like the Rental Market Trends pages, is located under the top left menu when you search for rentals in a specific city.
How can the Cost of Living Calculator help me build a budget?
The Cost of Living Calculator breaks down the average monthly costs in a city by groceries, housing, utilities, transportation, healthcare, and goods and services by different types of households. These averages are specifically tailored to give you a better idea of what your expenses will look like as a single renter, a homeowner, or a married couple with children. These pages also compare these costs to your current city, allowing you to see how you can expect your expenses to change after you move and identify ways to adjust your budget accordingly.
Make the Most of Your Move with Apartments.com
Whether you’re dropping in for a short-term lease or hoping to set down roots, Apartments.com has the tools to help you find a rental home easily. Navigate housing across neighborhoods with our customized search engine. Once you find the perfect location, narrow the search within a price range that works for you.
No matter the budget, the options are endless with Apartments.com. Ready to get started? Pay less, live more, and rent on.
