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Modeled monthly living costs

Cost of Living Calculator

Estimated modeled monthly living costs for a U.S. city, metro, or state using HUD Fair Market Rent, USDA Food Plans, and official regional context. This is not a proprietary index.

Your numbers

Estimated modeled monthly living cost

Housing uses HUD Fair Market Rent as a gross-rent benchmark. Food uses a USDA Food Plan. This is not a proprietary cost-of-living index.
SOURCES

Austin, TXHousing: Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, TX MSA. Food: USDA national food-at-home benchmark. Price level: Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, TX.

Selected: Austin, TX

Search a U.S. city, metro, or state. Duplicate names stay listed until you pick one.
Food plan uses USDA ages 6–8 for children.
HUD FMR is a gross-rent benchmark, including most tenant-paid utilities.
$Optional. Transit is not assumed to be free.
$
Other essentials

Phone, internet and similar. HUD gross rent does not include these, so they are not counted unless you add them.

$Phone, internet, or similar. HUD gross rent does not include these.

Counted here

  • Housing (HUD Fair Market Rent)
  • Food at home (USDA Food Plan)

Not counted

  • Transportation
  • Healthcare and insurance
  • Childcare
  • Debt payments
  • Restaurants and discretionary spending

Estimated modeled monthly living cost

$2,66153% of monthly take-home
Share of take-home53%
Remaining after modeled costs$2,339
Housing$1,852HUD FMR
Food at home$809Moderate-Cost
TransportationNot modeled
Regional price level98.1U.S. = 100
Median household income$93,658Census ACS context
How we got this
  1. HousingHUD Fair Market Rent 2 bedroom benchmark · Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, TX MSA$1,852
  2. Food at homeUSDA moderate-cost Food Plan · USDA national food-at-home benchmark$809
  3. TransportationPersonal vehicle not modeled; transit is not assumed to be free · UserNot modeled
  4. Other essentialsOptional essentials omittedOmitted
  5. Modeled monthly totalSum of included categories, not everything it costs to live here$2,661
  6. Share of take-homeManual monthly take-home53.2%
  7. Remaining after modeled costsTake-home minus modeled costs. Tax is not added again as an expense.$2,339
  8. Regional price level (BEA RPP)Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, TX. U.S. = 100. This is not applied to the dollar total and is not inflation.98.1
What we assumed
  • HUD FMR is a 40th-percentile gross-rent benchmark, not average asking rent.
  • The benchmark includes shelter rent and most tenant-paid utilities. A separate household electric bill is not added.
  • BEA housing or all-items RPP is not applied to HUD FMR.
  • USDA Food Plans are food prepared and consumed at home, not restaurants or all food spending.
  • Adults are modeled as ages 20–50, alternating male then female. Children use the official 6–8 age group.
  • BEA all-items RPP is not applied to USDA food costs.
  • BLS grocery staple prices are not used here; they lack household quantities.
  • EIA fuel and electricity prices are not multiplied by BEA RPP.
  • HUD gross rent already includes most tenant-paid utilities, so a household electric bill is not added on top.
  • Phone, internet, and similar costs are omitted unless entered.
  • This is an estimated modeled monthly living cost, not everything it costs to live here.
  • Healthcare, childcare, debt, restaurants, and most discretionary spending are omitted.
  • Income tax is not added as a living-cost category after take-home is known.
  • BEA RPP compares regional price levels in 2024. It is not a measure of inflation over time.
Technical details

Method cost-of-living-v1.0.0Data hud-fmr-fy2026-revised-2026-05-21-v1, usda-food-plans-2026-07-v1, bea-rpp-2024-v1, census-acs5-2024-v1

Guide

Modeled monthly living costs from official pieces

CostAnswer editorialIndependent calculator publisher

The total is assembled from HUD Fair Market Rent, USDA food plans, and other official regional context stored on this site, plus lines you type. It is not a proprietary “index score” and not your lease.

What is local versus national

Rent uses HUD FMRs for the geography you pick when that geography exists in the snapshot. Some other lines are national planning values. The page labels which is which. Two metros can look close on rent and diverge once utilities and groceries are in the same frame.

Moving for a job in 2026

A teacher moving from a Texas suburb to a coastal California metro should not compare salaries alone. Run salary after tax in both states, then this page for rent and groceries. Neither page includes a pension pickup or a signing bonus.

Questions about this calculator

Is this like a magazine cost-of-living index?

No. Those products often use private surveys and a 100-based index. This page adds labeled official components into a monthly dollar total.

Can I compare Austin and Chicago?

Yes, as two modeled totals. They are not a ranking of “best places” and they omit healthcare and childcare unless you typed them.

Terms used here

Fair Market Rent
HUD’s published rent estimates by bedroom count and area. Not your apartment’s rent.
USDA Food Plans
USDA’s monthly food-cost plans used as a grocery planning line.

Practical tips

  • If you already have a lease, type that rent instead of treating FMR as your bill.
  • After a move, rerun salary after tax for the new state; this page is spending, not tax.

Limits and caveats

  • Planning estimate from mixed official sources. Not a budget you can hand to a lender as proof of expenses.

Results are for information. They are not legal, tax, medical, or financial advice. How the math is maintained · Report a wrong figure.

Engine notes

Rounding, versioning, and omissions that sit beside the guide rather than repeating it.

  • Modeled dollars, not a verdict. The headline is the sum of the categories this model actually prices, and only when housing is included. HUD Fair Market Rent, a USDA Food Plan, and optional transportation or extras. If housing cannot be mapped to one HUD area, the result is incomplete and not a comparable cost of living. Healthcare, childcare, restaurants, debt, and most discretionary spending are left out on purpose.
  • Housing is a gross-rent benchmark. HUD Fair Market Rent is a 40th-percentile gross-rent benchmark for the HUD FMR area, not city limits and not typical listing rent. It already includes most tenant-paid utilities, so this tool does not add a separate household electric bill on top. A manual housing amount is treated the same way: housing plus those utilities.
  • Food, fuel, and regional prices stay in their lanes. USDA Food Plans are food at home, using official household-size adjustments. They are national unless you choose the Thrifty plan in Alaska or Hawaii. EIA gasoline and electricity are used only for a personal vehicle. BEA Regional Price Parities are shown as context (U.S. = 100) and are not multiplied into HUD, USDA, or EIA dollars. RPP is not an inflation time series.

Calculation receipt

What each number here is

This answer is built from published figures. Each one is named below, with the release it came from.

OBSERVEDHUD Fair Market Rents
Measured and published. The answer is built on it, so it is only as current as the release date shown.
OBSERVEDUSDA Food Plans
Measured and published. The answer is built on it, so it is only as current as the release date shown.
OBSERVEDBEA Regional Price Parities
Sharpens the answer where it is available.
OBSERVEDCensus ACS 5-year
Sharpens the answer where it is available.
OBSERVEDEIA retail electricity
Sharpens the answer where it is available.
OBSERVEDEIA weekly gasoline
Sharpens the answer where it is available.
VERIFIEDIRS and state revenue departments
Sharpens the answer where it is available.

If a source above is unavailable or out of date: Housing comes from HUD’s area rent and food from the USDA plan. Without those two the page would only add up figures the reader typed, which answers nothing about a place.

Sources

Where this data comes from

HUD Fair Market RentsHUD Fair Market Rents from the official county-level FMR workbook. Gross rent, 40th percentile, including most tenant-paid utilities. Currently effective FY2026 (2025-10-01 to 2026-09-30). Latest published is FY2027. Snapshot hud-fmr-fy2026-revised-2026-05-21-v1.HUD · FY 2026 ↗USDA Food PlansUSDA Food Plans: Cost of Food Report, July 2026. Food prepared and consumed at home. Not restaurant spending. Snapshot usda-food-plans-2026-07-v1.USDA · July 2026 ↗BEA Regional Price ParitiesBEA Regional Price Parities for 2024. 100 = U.S. average price level that year. RPP is a spatial index, not a household budget and not an inflation time series. Snapshot bea-rpp-2024-v1.BEA · 2024 ↗Census ACS 5-YearACS 5-Year 2024 table-based summary file. Estimates, not live counts. Median household income is context, not the user’s salary. Snapshot census-acs5-2024-v1. Median household income is regional context, not the user’s salary.Census · 2020–2024 ACS 5-Year / 2024 geography ↗

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