The equivalency factor is a weighted ratio built on housing cost:

factor = (w_housing × H_target/H_source) + (w_other × [1 + (H_target/H_source − 1) × 0.5])

Where H is the median home value at each location (from Repit’s live data). The non-housing share applies the housing differential dampened by half, reflecting that general (non-housing) living costs move less sharply than home prices. Adjust the slider to reflect how much of your budget actually goes to rent/mortgage vs other living costs.

We deliberately do not use local median income here — that is a measure of what residents earn, not what living there costs, so blending it in would invent a phantom raise just for moving somewhere with higher-paid neighbors. This is a housing-first cost-of-living proxy, not a full BLS CPI comparison. It works well because housing dominates most people’s budget. For tax-adjusted state-level comparisons, consult state revenue data separately.