Calculator
Cost of moving and rent
Planning rent in the new city, the gap versus what you pay now, and a local move.
What does it cost to move to a new city?
Two numbers matter, and they should not be added together. Rent is every month. The truck is once. This calculator shows a planning rent for the city you pick — a one-bedroom if you say one bedroom or fewer, a two-bedroom otherwise — and a local move. The move starts from $1,500 for a two-bedroom household, times 0.85 for a studio or one-bedroom and 1.25 for three bedrooms or more. About 70 percent of that is labor, so your city's labor rate moves the truck price. Long-distance freight is not included. A cross-country move is a different quote.
The rents are planning figures reviewed with the city row. They are not apartments for rent, and they will not match the listing you saw this morning. Use them to compare cities, and to see what a relocation offer is really doing. Then call the building.
The gap versus what you pay now
Type the rent you pay today. The result is their rent minus yours, per month. A city can have cheap movers and brutal rent, or the reverse. If you also type a gross annual income, the page shows what share of a month that rent would take. Over 30 percent is a pressure flag in this guide. It is not a rule from a lender, and it ignores utilities, childcare, and debt. A household earning $72,000 has $6,000 a month of gross income in the illustration used on the city pages. Swap in yours.
Move day, not just the rent
The example home on each city page is there because stairs cost money. A walk-up pushes you toward the high column. A first floor or an elevator is the low column. The high column is still a local move of the same household, not a piano and not a storage unit. Read the city's move note before you treat the typical number as your building.
Electricity belongs in the same decision
A cheap rent with a high summer bill is not a cheap city. The planning electric rate is on the city page and in the bar's city. This calculator does not add the bill to the rent, because that would hide which number hurts. Look at them side by side, especially if you are choosing between a hot city and a mild one.
If you already live there and you needed a repair price, this is the wrong tool. Open the water heater or the mini-split calculator. If you are comparing an offer, keep the monthly gap and the one-time truck in separate columns when you answer. Reviewed 2026-09-01. Nothing here tells you to break a lease.
A useful way to share this page is to send the gap, not a vibe. “Rent is $400 more a month and the local move is about $1,500” is a sentence someone can use. A cost-of-living score is not. Put your current rent in. The calculator’s only job is to show that gap beside the truck. If you are helping someone else decide, send them the city page too, so they can see the houses and the electric rate, not only the rent.
People search “cost of living” and get one index that hides the problem. Keep the questions separate. What is rent. What is a local move. What does electricity cost in August. What kind of building will the truck actually climb. Answer those, then decide. The calculator will not rank cities for you, because a ranking is how a cheap truck disguises an expensive lease.
Questions this page can answer
- How much does a local move cost?
- A two-bedroom local move starts from a national typical of $1,500 before your city's labor, with a low and a high around it. One-bedroom moves are scaled down. Long-distance trucking is not included.
- Are these rents live listings?
- No. They are planning figures for the city, reviewed with the row. Ask the building what it is asking this month.
- How much rent is too much?
- This guide flags rent above 30 percent of gross monthly income as pressure. It is an illustration, not a bank rule. Enter your income to see your own share.