Before Moving, Check Your New Cost Of Living Estimates

With home values slow to rise and mortgage rates at all-time lows, there's never been a more affordable time to own a home.

However, there is more to the cost of living than just a mortgage payment. There's the cost of groceries, gasoline and routine medical care, too.

Not surprisingly, where we live affects our costs.

Big cities are often more expensive in which to live, for example, and local tax laws influence daily costs, too. 

For home buyers moving across state borders, therefore -- or even for those moving long distances intra-state -- it's important to know the relative costs in your new hometown as compared to your current one. Your household cash flow depends on it. You can't know your budget for a home if you don't know what life in a new town will cost you.

Enter Bankrate.com's Cost of Living Comparison Calculator.

In comparing the costs of 60 mundane, everyday items, the Cost of Living Comparison calculator can show you how common costs in your current home town compare to costs in your soon-to-be new home town.

The calculator asks for just three inputs -- (1) In what city do you live now, (2) To what city are you moving, and (3) What is your current salary -- then uses that information to produce a detailed cost comparison.

Some of the Cost of Living items compared include :

• Ground beef costs
• Veterinary services costs
• Dozen egg costs
• Doctor visit costs
• Hair care costs

The calculator also includes local mortgage rate differences to help plan for housing, and accounts for median home prices, too.

The online Cost of Living calculator is based on data from the ACCRA. On the ACCRA website, a similar cost comparison report sells for $5. At Bankrate.com, you can get the data for free.

Top 25 Least Expensive U.S. Cities

A report issued Monday by the U.S. government showed core inflation rising 2.5 percent in the last 12 months for its biggest one-year gain since January 2010.

Everyday living is becoming expensive, it seems.

But there are some U.S. towns in which the cost of living remains affordable -- and downright cheap -- as compared to the national average. They're detailed in a BusinessWeek piece titled "The Cheapest 25 Cities In The U.S".

In comparing costs across 340 urban areas as compiled by the Council of Community & Economic Research, cities in Texas, Arkansas, Tennessee and Oklahoma ranked consistently high. Cities in Hawaii did not.

Take note, though. Although the BusinessWeek piece highlights inexpensive cities in which to live, a low cost of living does not necessarily correlate to a high standard of living. Cost-leader Harlingen, Texas, for example, boasts a poverty rate nearly triple the national average.

Other "Inexpensive Cities" feature similar poverty rates.

The Top 10 "cheapest cities", as shown by BusinessWeek are:

1. Harlingen, Texas
2. Pueblo, Colorado
3. Pryor Creek, Oklahoma
4. McAllen, Texas
5. Cookeville, Tennessee
6. Commerce-Hunt County, Texas
7. Brownsville, Texas
8. Fort Smith, Arkansas
9. Muskogee, Oklahoma
10. Springfield, Illinois

And, at the other end of the spectrum, the top 5 most expensive cities/areas were, in order, Manhattan, New York; Brooklyn, New York; Honolulu, Hawaii; San Francisco, CA; and Queens, New York.

Manhattan's cost of living is more than twice the national average.

The complete list is available at the BusinessWeek website.

Moving To A New City? See How Much Your Cost Of Living Will Change.

It's a fact: It's more expensive to live in some cities than others. Beyond just the costs of buying a home, different cities also carry a different Cost of Living. For households relocating from DC and  across state lines, the change in "life costs" can be jarring.

Depending on where you live, everyday expenses -- from groceries to gasoline -- make a different-sized dent in a household budget. And now you can see in numbers by how much your expenses might change.

Visit Bankrate.com's Cost of Living Comparison Calculator. 

The Cost of Living Comparison calculator is as basic as it is thorough. The calculator asks just 3 questions --  (1) Where do you live now, (2) To what city are you moving, and (3) What is your salary -- and uses your answers to produce a detailed, 60-item cost comparison between the two towns.

The city-to-city cost comparisons include:

• Dry Cleaning Costs
• Total Energy Costs
• Beauty Salon Costs
• Movie Costs
• Dentist Visit Costs

The list also features a mortgage rate comparison, and a comparison of local home prices.

The Cost of Living calculator is based on data from the ACCRA. On the ACCRA website, a similar report sells for $5. At Bankrate.com, the information is free.

Cost of Living Reaches An All-Time High, Pressures Mortgage Rates Higher

Mortgage rates are up 0.875% since mid-November, causing home buyer purchasing power across Washington, DC to fall more than 10 percent since.

Persistent concerns over inflation are a major reason why and this week's Consumer Price Index did little to quell fears. CPI rose for the third straight month last month.

Wall Street was not surprised.

As the economy has picked up steam since late-2010, the Federal Reserve has held the Fed Funds Rate near zero percent, and kept its $600 billion bond plan moving forward. The Fed believes this is necessary to support the economy in the near-term. 

Over the long-term, however, Wall Street worries that these programs may cause the economy may expand too far, too fast, and into runaway inflation.

Inflation pressures mortgage rates to rise.

Inflation is an economic concept; defined as when a currency loses its value.  Something that used to cost $1.00 now costs $1.05, for example. It's not that the goods themselves are more expensive, per se. It's that the money used to buy the goods is worth less.

Because of inflation, it takes more money to buy the same amount of product.

This is a big deal in the mortgage markets because mortgage rates come from the price of mortgage bonds, and mortgage bonds are denominated, bought, and sold in U.S. dollars. When inflation in present, the dollar loses its value and, therefore, so do mortgage bonds.

When mortgage bonds lose value, mortgage rates go up.

Inflation fears are harming VA home buyers. The Cost of Living has reached a record level, surpassing the former peak set in July 2008. Mortgage rates would be rising more right now if not for the Middle East unrest.

So long as inflation concerns persist, mortgage rates should trend higher over the next few quarters. If you're wondering whether to lock or float your mortgage rate, consider locking today's sure thing.