Cost of Living
 

While surfing I came across this site which offers cost of living for many US cities and if required you can compare other cities around the world against the US city you are thinking of moving to.
I am not sure how the comparison works but the costs for my current city are pretty accurate based on personal experience.
I just put it out there feel free to take a look and draw your own conclusions.

Mods if this would be a useful tool to others please move it where it may get more traffic and offer others a comparison tool ahead of making the big move.

http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living...=United+States

Re: Cost of Living
 

It's a bit hit or miss.

Only a few spots in MA, not really covering the burbs.

Costing is on the mark for a few things in both Ashland and Boston, but well off the mark for housing and grocery costs for a lot of stuff.

Re: Cost of Living
 

I looked up my city of Mesa, AZ. This is what it said about gas:

Gasoline (1 liter) 0.97 $

I know THAT's not right!!! Gas is about $3.69 a gallon. Where they got .97 I'll never know.

The other problem I see is that they are listing things in liters and meters, such as this:

Basic (Electricity, Gas, Water, Garbage) for 85m2 Apartment 281.52 $

I have no idea how large an 85m2 apartment would be, so I can't tell if $281 is correct for utilities or not. My condo is $1,000 SF, and I can tell you my electric bill is WAY less than that, it ranges from $40 to $80 per month, depending on the season. No gas in my place. Water and garbage are taken care of by the association (which, if this is an apartment they are talking about, I would assume also included in rent cost).

So yeah, not the most reliable, that I can see.

Rene

Re: Cost of Living
 

3.78 liters per US gallon.

But generally yes, quoting in metric isn't that helpful.

Re: Cost of Living
 

that 97c is per litre, there's a smidge under 4 litres to a gallon, about 3.8 I think....so it's saying about $3.69G...so in that one, it's bang on.

85m2= 915 square feet.

Re: Cost of Living
 

Is it aimed at international moves?

The LA one had a few gaps '?'.

The problem with these things is, the price of cappucinos and Levis is pretty meaningless, and rent varies too much between areas within a city to mean much.

Re: Cost of Living
 

Aye, a place that has off street parking or covered parking v on street parking, never mind if a place has snow ploughing included or not, etc, etc.

Still a handy, simplified base line I guess, but would be good if there was the ability to flip between imperial/metric for the missmash of measurements.

Re: Cost of Living
 

Since the site is aimed at worldwide prices, and the US is the only industrialised nation NOT to use metric, I think it's very reasonable to use metric, but...

...would indeed be helpful.

Some items picked for measurement are a little odd. Like 0.3l bottles of coke - pretty rare in the UK and Europe too I think. A can of coke is more common I would have thought.

I'm wondering how they come up with the figures for prices reported over a period of time. For example, if somebody posts $5 for something a year ago and it's now $10, does the price come up as the average of the two - ie $7.50 - or what?