You find a house you love in another city. The photos look great, the price seems reasonable, and you can already picture yourself there. Then the questions start: What would it cost to rent nearby? How do housing costs compare with where you live now? What might the commute look like?
Before you get too far into packing boxes—or scrolling through listings—it helps to put a few numbers side by side.
That’s why we created Compare Before You Move, a free Roof & Ratio tool that brings housing and commute estimates into one easy comparison. You can explore two or three places across the country without opening a separate spreadsheet for each one.
Try the free Compare Before You Move tool.
What can you compare?
The tool covers 32,038 Census places across all 50 states and Washington, DC, including cities, towns, and other communities. Search by place name and state, select your matches, and compare four measures:
- Median monthly gross rent: A historical measure of rent and applicable tenant-paid utilities and fuels for occupied rentals. It is not today’s advertised rent for a new lease.
- Median owner-occupied home value: The middle reported value of owner-occupied homes. It is different from the median sale price of homes currently on the market.
- Monthly owner costs with a mortgage: A historical measure that includes mortgage payments and specified expenses such as taxes, insurance, and utilities for existing mortgaged households. It is not a quote for your next mortgage.
- Mean one-way commute: An estimate calculated from Census travel-time and commuting-worker totals. Your particular route may look very different.
You can highlight the measure you care about most, print your comparison, or download the results as a CSV file.
How to use the comparison
Start with where you live now and one place you’re considering. Add a third if you’re weighing another option.
Type the city and state, then choose a result from the suggestions. The state matters: Portland, Oregon, and Portland, Maine, are very different searches. Select Compare places to see the results together.
Look for questions worth investigating. If an area shows lower housing costs, what do current listings look like for the kind of home you need? If the commute estimate is longer, how would your actual work schedule and route change the picture?
The tool helps organize that first round of research. It doesn’t choose your next home for you.
Know what the numbers can—and cannot—tell you
This edition uses 2020–2024 American Community Survey five-year estimates, downloaded October 3, 2026. Five-year estimates combine information collected over that period; they are not a current market-price feed. The Census Bureau explains the distinction in its guide to one-year and five-year estimates.
These are survey estimates, so uncertainty matters. The tool displays published margins of error for the three housing measures when available. Small differences are not automatically meaningful. Missing values remain unavailable rather than becoming zero.
Coverage follows Census place boundaries, which can differ from ZIP codes, neighborhoods, and metro areas. Some local names and individual estimates are unavailable.
This is a housing-and-commute comparison, not a complete cost-of-living calculator. It does not include your grocery bill, childcare, healthcare, or every other household expense. And subtracting the rent figure from the ownership figure does not tell you whether buying would save you money: those figures describe different homes and households.
Turn your shortlist into a personal budget
Once you have a few places in mind, gather current figures for the homes and lifestyle you’re actually considering:
- Rent or purchase prices for properties that meet your needs
- Property-specific taxes, insurance, HOA fees, and utilities
- Your likely work route and transportation expenses
- Moving quotes, deposits, and other upfront costs
For example, a lower advertised rent may come with utilities you currently have included. A cheaper home may need repairs. Checking those details is what turns an appealing number into a useful plan.
Coming soon: a more detailed paid moving planner
The basic nationwide comparison is free. We’re also developing Compare Before You Move — Personal Moving Planner, with a planned launch price of $9.99 as a one-time purchase.
The planned premium version will help you build personalized monthly budgets, compare rent-versus-buy scenarios using your own numbers, organize moving costs and upfront cash needs, and save a printable planning report and moving checklist.
The premium planner is in development and is not yet available to purchase. You can use the free comparison now, and explore our existing Homebuyer Tools for other planning resources.
Start with two places
You don’t need to have your move completely figured out. Start with where you are and one place you’re curious about. Compare the numbers, note what needs a closer look, and use that information to guide your next questions.
Keep your Texas and Florida research together
If your comparison involves Texas and Florida, use the Texas ↔ Florida Investor Relocation Toolkit to organize your research, numbers and next steps. Date your sources and replace assumptions with current property-specific quotes as your shortlist improves.
The toolkit is a planning organizer, not a live source of market prices, insurance quotes or legal requirements. A city comparison should lead to better questions about individual properties rather than a guarantee that one state is always cheaper.
About the author
Marchelle Cook is the founder of Roof & Ratio, a real estate professional, investor and property manager with more than two decades of experience.
Read our editorial standards and how we explain the numbers.