True Cost Of Living Analysis Project

Inflation is generally reported as a percentage. Household bills arrive in dollars. Official sources describe prices, income, housing, taxes, and healthcare in detail, but none publishes a single recurring answer to one question: after the required costs are paid, what is left?

TrueCOLA brings those source measures together on common terms. The Monthly Margin Report publishes the next business day after the Bureau of Labor Statistics releases the Consumer Price Index. A Friday CPI release means a Monday report. A release on the day before a federal holiday means the report publishes the next business day after the holiday. It is the Consumer Price Index basket, priced in dollars and set against income. It does not replace the index. It shows what the index weighs, in the unit bills arrive in.

The research engine and the public website have separate functions. The engine retrieves documented source data, applies version-controlled Python functions, and subjects the result to automated checks. The website displays the published figures. It does not calculate them.

Federal sources provide the foundation. Where no federal source offers current rent data at the level of detail required, the report identifies the Zillow rent input plainly and preserves its source conditions. The methodology documents the rules, and the corrections log keeps every change on the public record.

We do not lobby, endorse, or advocate. We measure, and we publish. TrueCOLA does not recommend what wages, benefits, or cost-of-living adjustments should be. It does not forecast votes or tell anyone how to vote.

The same measures are published for every district, on the same schedule, by the same method. Readers, reporters, employers, public officials, and voters draw their own conclusions about what the figures mean.