About LivabilityCalc

Empowering Americans to make housing-first relocation decisions with public data.

Our Mission

Moving to a new city is one of the biggest financial decisions you'll ever make. Yet most people rely on gut feelings, word-of-mouth, or scattered blog posts to make this choice.

LivabilityCalc exists to change that. We consolidate authoritative public data into interactive housing and relocation tools — mortgage calculators pre-filled with local data, rent-vs-buy analysis, city cost comparisons, and property tax context — so you can make data-driven decisions about where to live.

Our Data Sources

Every number on this site is grounded in public or institutional sources and displayed as an estimate with known geographic and methodological limits. We do not use user surveys as the truth layer.

U.S. Census Bureau (ACS 2023)Population, median home values, median rent, household income, and housing data for 6,700+ U.S. cities.

Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA)Metropolitan Area Regional Price Parities (MARPP 2024) — the backbone of our non-housing cost of living indices for goods, services, and utilities.

Federal Reserve (FRED)National economic indicators, real-time mortgage rate trends via Freddie Mac PMMS, and inflation benchmarks.

State & Tax Reference DataState-level tax context for relocation planning, shown beside housing, property tax, and sales tax assumptions.

Tax FoundationState-level effective property tax rates and local sales tax consumption models.

Zillow Research (ZHVI & ZORI)Monthly home value and observed rent indices for real-time market pricing at city level.

How We're Different

Unlike content-farming sites that fill pages with generic text, every LivabilityCalc page is built around place-side feasibility. When you visit a city page, you can calculate mortgage payments, compare housing and rent pressure, inspect property tax context, and decide whether the place fits your household budget.

Built By

Created by a team of data engineers and financial analysts who believe reliable cost-of-living data shouldn't be locked behind paid services or limited to major metropolitan areas.

Have feedback or data correction requests? Reach us at [email protected].

Affiliate Disclosure

LivabilityCalc may earn commissions when you click on certain partner links on this site. This never influences the data we show or the tools we provide. Our calculators use the same formulas regardless of whether you click an affiliate link.