Quick Summary
How to compare two cities side by side using a cost of living spreadsheet. Housing, state taxes, utilities, transportation, food, plus the salary-equivalent number that drives the call.
Quick answer. A cost of living comparison spreadsheet lays two cities side by side across eight categories (housing, income tax, sales tax, transportation, utilities, food, healthcare, miscellaneous) and ends with a salary-equivalent line: the gross income required in City B to preserve the post-essentials cash flow you have in City A. Online calculators give one indexed number. A spreadsheet uses your actual rent, your real commute, and the take-home you actually receive.
Most cost of living calculators give back a single sentence: “You’d need to earn $X in Boston to maintain your standard of living in Austin.” That number is built on national index averages and opaque weights. It does not know that you already share a car, that your current rent is below market, or that your new job offer comes with a 401(k) match the old one didn’t.
A spreadsheet does. Below is how to build one, using Austin, Texas and Boston, Massachusetts as the worked example. The same structure carries over to any US city pair.
Why a spreadsheet beats a cost-of-living calculator
The two approaches answer different questions. A web calculator answers: “How much more or less expensive is City B than City A, on average, for an average person?” A spreadsheet answers the same question for you, given your rent, your car situation, your tax bracket, and your spending pattern.
Three concrete differences:
- Housing is not the metro average for you. Web calculators assume you’ll rent at the metro median. If you live below market (rent-stabilized, with roommates, or in a less central neighborhood), the calculator overstates your current cost and understates the move’s pain.
- Tax bites differently by bracket. A flat 5% state income tax hits a $200K salary with capital gains very differently than a single W-2 at $70K.
- Cars are a yes-or-no question. Going from a two-car Austin household to one-car-plus-transit in Boston saves more than any indexed grocery comparison can capture.
Web calculators are a useful starting point. The salary number they produce flags whether the order of magnitude is right. They are not the answer.
The eight categories that matter
These are the lines that move the total. Other categories exist (haircuts, entertainment, gym), but they vary less between metros and rarely change the conclusion.
| Category | Variance between metros | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Housing | Very high | Often 40-60% of total spending; biggest single driver |
| State and local income tax | High | Zero in TX, FL, WA, TN, NH, SD, AK, NV, WY; 5% flat in MA; up to 13.3% top bracket in CA |
| Transportation | High | Car-required vs transit-viable can swing $400-$800/month |
| Utilities | Medium-high | Electricity rates vary 3x across the US; climate drives usage |
| Sales tax | Medium | 0% in OR, NH, MT, DE to 8-10%+ combined in TN, LA, AR |
| Food and groceries | Low-medium | BLS data shows 10-20% variance between metros, less than people expect |
| Healthcare | Low-medium | Insurance premiums vary mostly by employer, not zip code |
| Miscellaneous | Low | Subscriptions, personal care, etc. - usually a wash |
The pattern: housing and income tax dominate. If those two come out roughly even, the rest of the categories tend to be a rounding error on the decision.
Setting up the spreadsheet
Open a new Google Sheets or Excel file. Three tabs:
- Inputs - one column per city, one row per line item
- Tax - gross-to-net calculation for each city (kept separate because the math is fiddly)
- Summary - totals, salary-equivalent line, verdict number
On the Inputs tab, structure rows like this:
| Row | Category | City A (Austin) | City B (Boston) | Difference (B - A) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rent (2BR) | 1,900 | 3,800 | 1,900 |
| 2 | Renter’s insurance | 18 | 30 | 12 |
| 3 | Electricity | 175 | 220 | 45 |
| … | … | … | … | … |
The “Difference” column is =C2-B2 filled down. The bottom row sums each column. That’s the entire skeleton.
Housing usually decides it
Housing is the largest variance and the largest absolute number, so it gets the most attention.
If you rent, the inputs are base rent for the size you actually want (not the metro median, the apartment you’d actually sign for), renter’s insurance at $15-30/month, parking if it’s separate from rent (common in dense northeast metros, often included in southwest metros), and pet rent at $50-100/month per pet.
For owners, the picture has more lines:
- Mortgage payment at current rates
- Property tax (varies wildly: ~1.8% in TX, ~1.2% in MA, ~0.7% in CA)
- HOA fee if applicable
- Homeowner’s insurance (higher in hurricane and wildfire zones)
- A maintenance reserve, often estimated at 1% of home value per year
Using current rental market data, a comparable 2-bedroom apartment averages roughly $1,900/month in Austin and $3,800/month in Boston (per Zillow rental data and Apartments.com Austin trends). That’s a $1,900/month gap before anything else - $22,800 over a year. That single line tends to dwarf every other category combined.
State and local income tax
Web calculators handle this poorly because they assume one tax situation.
Texas has no state income tax. Massachusetts has a flat 5% rate on most income, with a 4% surtax on income above roughly $1 million. Per the Tax Foundation’s 2026 state income tax data, seven states impose no individual income tax (Alaska, Florida, Nevada, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Wyoming), and Washington and New Hampshire tax only specific income types.
For a worker earning $110,000 in salary:
- Austin (TX): $0 state income tax
- Boston (MA): 5% x $110,000 = $5,500/year, or about $458/month
Add a city income tax line if the destination has one (NYC, Philadelphia, San Francisco residents pay city tax on top of state). The right input is annual tax in dollars, divided by 12 to put it in the same monthly grid as the other categories.
Sales tax
Smaller per transaction, but it touches almost every dollar of discretionary spending.
- Austin: 8.25% combined (6.25% state + 2.0% local), per the Texas Comptroller
- Boston: 6.25% state with no local addition
On $1,200/month of discretionary spending (excluding rent, tax-exempt groceries, and gas), Austin sales tax adds ~$99/month vs Boston’s ~$75. A $24/month line item - small, but Boston is cheaper here.
Transportation is binary in most cities
Transportation is where lifestyle assumptions break the calculator. Austin is a car city; almost everyone owns one, and many households own two. The 2026 AAA Your Driving Costs report puts average annual ownership cost for a midsize sedan at roughly $12,300 per car including depreciation, insurance, fuel, and maintenance.
Boston is one of the few US cities where a no-car or one-car household is realistic. The MBTA monthly pass is $90. Add an occasional Uber and a Zipcar membership and you’re around $200-300/month.
| Scenario | Austin (2 cars) | Boston (1 car + transit) | Boston (no car, transit + rideshare) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly cost | ~$2,050 | ~$1,300 | ~$300 |
A household giving up one car saves $750+/month before any rent comparison. Going carless in Boston saves $1,700+/month versus two-car Austin. That can erase a significant chunk of the housing gap, and web calculators most often miss it because they assume identical car ownership in both cities.
Utilities reflect climate more than rates
Electricity rates and usage vary more than most realize.
- Austin: Around 12 cents/kWh; average residential bill ~$175/month
- Boston: Around 32 cents/kWh; average residential bill ~$220/month
The Boston rate is nearly three times higher, but Austin’s hotter summers drive higher usage. Per the BLS Boston Area energy report, Boston households also carry a winter heating bill (natural gas or oil) that Austin doesn’t, often $80-120/month from December through March. Water and trash usually run $40-80/month; internet $50-90. None of these will swing the decision alone, but they belong in the sheet.
Food and groceries
Per the BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey, average household food spending in 2024 was roughly $9,985/year, split between groceries ($6,053) and food away from home ($3,932). City-level variance is real but smaller than most expect. Groceries in Boston run about 8-12% above the national average; Austin runs 1-3% below. For a household spending $800/month on groceries, that gap is $80-120/month - meaningful, but a fraction of the housing line. Restaurants vary more, but that’s a usage question (how often you go out), not a price question.
The salary-equivalent calculation
The line the entire spreadsheet builds toward. The question: what gross income in City B preserves the same post-essentials cash flow as City A?
The mechanic, in plain language:
- Take your current monthly take-home pay in City A. Call it
Net_A. - Subtract your total monthly essentials in City A (rent, utilities, groceries, transport, insurance). The remainder is
Cushion_A. - Total your monthly essentials in City B using the spreadsheet. That’s
Essentials_B. - Required monthly net in City B =
Essentials_B + Cushion_A. - Convert back to gross using City B’s effective tax rate:
Required_Net / (1 - effective_tax_rate_B).
The Austin to Boston version, with rough numbers:
- Current Austin take-home: $7,200/month on a $110K salary
- Austin essentials: $4,400/month (rent, utilities, groceries, two cars)
- Austin cushion: $2,800/month
- Boston essentials: $5,800/month (rent, utilities, groceries, one car + transit)
- Required Boston net: $5,800 + $2,800 = $8,600/month, or $103,200/year
- Boston effective tax (federal + state + FICA, roughly 28%): required gross ~$143,000
A $110K Austin job and a $143K Boston job leave the same money on the table after essentials. A $130K Boston offer is a step backward in cash flow, even though it’s a $20K raise on paper.
What the spreadsheet does not capture
A cost-of-living comparison is a cash-flow analysis. It is silent on everything that matters and isn’t denominated in dollars.
- Commute time. A $400/month rent savings 25 minutes further from work costs roughly 200 hours per year in a car.
- Weather. Six months of New England winter is a different life than year-round Austin sun. The dollar cost of heating is in the sheet; the lived experience isn’t.
- Social ties. Family, friends, a doctor you trust. These have replacement costs that don’t show up on a budget.
- Job market depth. A single offer in a thin market is a different bet than the same offer in a city where 20 employers want your skill set.
- Career trajectory. A move that is flat on cash flow can still be a strong career move (or a weak one) for reasons outside the spreadsheet.
- Schools, healthcare access, childcare quality. Real and often expensive, but harder to compare on a monthly grid.
The spreadsheet shows the money math. The decision is broader.
Templates that fit
If you would rather not build from scratch, two of our templates handle the same job.
- Cost Comparison Template (Essentials) - A pre-built side-by-side comparison for up to four options with cost components, totals, and a weighted-scoring section for non-price factors. Built generically; works for cities, insurance plans, or any decision with multiple cost lines.
- Financial Planning Spreadsheet - A 40-year life projection with a cash flow tab. Useful when the move-or-stay question is bigger than a single year and you want to see how the choice ripples into retirement timing.
A fresh build takes about an hour. The companion piece on building a personal balance sheet in Google Sheets covers the spreadsheet mechanics in more depth.