TrueCOLAProject

The {{ reportMonth }} Report

The Real Cost of Living

Inflation is reported as a percentage. Your bills arrive in dollars. This report converts the official numbers into dollars — income, essentials, and what is left — for every congressional district, every month.

Look up your ZIP How it works
All 50 states · All 435 congressional districts · 26,000 ZIP codes · 65 source series

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The one-minute version

The Short Version

This report follows seven income groups drawn from federal data. For each one, it subtracts the required monthly costs — housing, healthcare, and essential living costs — from net monthly income. What is left is the monthly margin.

On the renter track this month, {{ shortNegLine }}. Select a card to look it up where you live.

Owning is cheaper, but for one person it rarely changes the ending. National averages weighted by state population, {{ reportMonth }} report month. Margin = net monthly income − required obligations.

The heart of the report

Find Your Row

Every state and every congressional district is re-measured each month, for all seven income groups, on four housing paths. Pick a place and a household, and read your row.

Start with your ZIP code

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This ZIP spans more than one district — pick yours

Or enter your street address to pin it down

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Suggestions via OpenStreetMap (Photon); district matching via the U.S. Census Bureau geocoder. Your address goes only to those services as you type and is never stored.

Your ZIP finds your state, city, and congressional district — or pick a place by hand below.

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Level

Household

Your representative

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Your senators

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Level

Household

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Monthly margin by housing path — select one

Net monthly income

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Required obligations · {{ yrPathShort }}

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Monthly margin: {{ yrChipVal }}

Make it yours

Stays in your browser — nothing is sent anywhere.

Type your own take-home income and monthly costs. The fields start from the row above — the same subtraction, with your numbers: income − housing − healthcare − essentials = your margin.

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Your monthly margin: {{ myChipVal }}

Rank 1 = best margin, ranked by the average of the renter and blended-owner margins. Required obligations = housing + healthcare + essential living costs, localized. ZIP matching uses the Census ZCTA–district relationship (119th Congress); ZIPs that span districts show every option, and city names come from a public ZIP lookup. Numbers you type stay in your browser. Educational measurement, not financial advice.

Parts 1–3 of the guide

Why the Official Number Misses It

The Consumer Price Index tracks the price of a fixed “basket” of goods and services and reports how that cost changes. When you hear “inflation was 3 percent,” that number came from a CPI. Inside the basket, every category gets a weight — its share of the average surveyed household's spending.

In the published tables, rent of a primary residence carries a weight of {{ rentWeightStr }} — a little under eleven cents of every dollar spent. But no individual household is that average. A renting household pays the full market rent out of its own pocket, and the share it takes depends entirely on income.

In one sentence

The index answers “how fast are prices rising for the average basket?” It does not answer “what share of this household's income do those prices take?” This report answers the second question.

For {{ rentStr }} of rent to be only {{ rentWeightStr }} of a household's spending, that household would have to spend about {{ breakEvenStr }} a month on everything combined. None of the seven incomes here comes close.

The basket, as the index sees it

Rent of a primary residence{{ rentWeightStr }} Owners' equivalent rent{{ oerWeightStr }} Everything else: food, transportation, medical care…67.5%

Bureau of Labor Statistics Relative Importance tables, U.S. city average, CPI-W.

The same rent, seven very different shares of income

The national average market rent is {{ rentStr }} a month (Zillow Observed Rent Index — rent only, before utilities or fees). The same rent in every row; only the income changes.

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An illustration of the index's structural weight — not a claim that the index sets a rent allowance, or that any payment is calculated this way. Price indexes measure a broad group's spending over time; they are not a personal budget.

Parts 5 & 7 of the guide

What Counts as Required Obligations

The essentials: housing, healthcare, and essential living costs — food, utilities, transportation, phone and internet, and the like — each updated with current prices and adjusted for local price levels. The same categories apply to every household type.

Housing · renter track

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Zillow Observed Rent Index (rent data © Zillow), national. Just the rent — not utilities or fees. Shared either way for two people.

Housing · homeowner track

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With a mortgage · 61%
{{ ownMortStr }} Paid off · 39%
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Census Selected Monthly Owner Costs — a blended line. Owners still paying a mortgage pay roughly three times what paid-off owners do.

Healthcare · matched to household

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The rest of the basket — bigger than the rent

For {{ essWho }}, the essentials besides housing and health insurance come to about {{ essTotalStr }} a month — more than the rent itself. Shared items like utilities, phone, and internet do not double.

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Essential living costs, national monthly averages, {{ reportMonth }}. BLS spending and price data, localized with BEA Regional Price Parities. In every row of this report the arithmetic is identical: net monthly income − required obligations = monthly margin.

Part 6 of the guide

The Margin Tables: Seven Groups, Every Path

Gross monthly income, the federal, payroll, and state tax taken out, the net income that actually arrives — then the monthly margin on four housing paths. National averages; find the row closest to your own situation and read across.

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← behind · $0 · ahead →

Household
Gross
Federal
Payroll
State
Net
Renter
Owner
With mortgage
Paid off
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Reading the tables

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Where the math works

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Part 8 & Appendices B–C

Where You Live Changes the Math

Every essential-cost category is adjusted for local price levels, and the spread between states is wide. The same subtraction runs in every one of the 435 congressional districts — here is how many end the month negative, for each income group:

Household
Renter · 1p
Owner · 1p
Range · 1p renter
Renter · 2p
Owner · 2p
Range · 2p renter
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The Top 10 and Bottom 10

Ranked by the average of the renter and blended-owner margins · renter margin shown · {{ tbGroupLine }} · select any row to open it in Find Your Row

Best 10 · States

Worst 10 · States

Best 10 · Congressional districts

Worst 10 · Congressional districts

The Rankings: Every State, Every District

Level

Income baseline

Household size

Search

Order

Rank
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Gross
Net
Renter
Owner
Mortgage
Paid off
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Click any row to open it in Find Your Row.

Rank 1 = best margin, by the average of the renter and blended-owner margins; the same rank applies to one-person and two-person tables. Every district is listed with its representative, every state with both senators, so any office can open its own row.

Trust and traceability

Where These Numbers Come From

Every figure can be traced to its source. Federal data does the heavy lifting; one non-federal dataset (Zillow market rent) is used only where no federal equivalent exists, and it is labeled wherever it appears.

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Every federal source is pulled from its official agency portal and stamped with a cryptographic fingerprint, so the exact inputs can be re-checked later. Every published number is produced by a documented calculation, published alongside the data. Full methodology at www.truecola.org/methodology.

Published by True Cost Of Living Analysis Project, an independent Utah nonprofit. The report is built from documented federal source data and the Zillow Observed Rent Index for current market rent, clearly labeled wherever it is used. It is an independent analytical publication, not a publication issued, reviewed, or endorsed by BLS, SSA, Zillow, or any other source agency.

True Cost Of Living Analysis Project is a nonpartisan measurement and public education organization. It does not endorse candidates, recommend legislation, or engage in lobbying, and does not provide legal, financial, tax, or Medicare plan advice. This report takes no position on any policy or program.

Data credits & disclosures

Rent data © Zillow. Market-rent figures are derived from the Zillow Observed Rent Index (ZORI), Zillow Group, Inc. — used with attribution under Zillow's public research-data terms. ZORI is the only non-federal source in this report; it is used solely because no federal agency publishes monthly rent in dollars at this level of detail, and it is labeled wherever it appears. This site is not affiliated with or endorsed by Zillow.

Federal data. All other figures are constructed from U.S. Census Bureau, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Social Security Administration, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Internal Revenue Service, Bureau of Economic Analysis, and state revenue department sources. This report is not an official publication of any federal agency.

ZIP lookup. ZIP-to-district matching uses the U.S. Census Bureau ZCTA–congressional district relationship files (119th Congress); ZIP codes are postal routes, not exact boundaries, so ZIPs spanning districts show every option. City names come from the public Zippopotam.us lookup. ZIP codes and any figures you type stay in your browser and are never transmitted or stored by this site.