Kultranz publishes data-driven money guides. We do not invent numbers — every salary, cost-of-living, and affordability figure on this site is computed from official U.S. government datasets. Here is exactly what we use and how.
Sources
- Salaries & wage percentiles — U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), May 2023 release. We use the mean, the 10th/25th/median/75th/90th percentiles, and total employment by metro area and occupation (SOC code).
- Cost of living — Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) Regional Price Parities (RPP), accessed via FRED, where the U.S. national average = 100.
- Demographics & housing — U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey (ACS): population, median household income, median home value, median rent, poverty rate, and educational attainment.
- Rates & metro unemployment — Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED).
How we compute
- “Real pay” (cost-of-living adjusted) = average salary × 100 ÷ the metro’s RPP — what a salary is worth in national-average dollars.
- Home affordability uses the 28% rule (housing ≤ 28% of gross income), 10% down, and the stated 30-year mortgage rate to derive a maximum home price at each salary percentile.
- Equivalent salary between cities scales by the ratio of the two metros' RPP values.
Freshness
Each page shows the vintage of the data it uses. When a new government release lands (BLS OEWS is annual; ACS is annual; FRED series update monthly), the underlying figures are refreshed and the page’s “updated” date changes.
Corrections
Found a number that looks wrong? Tell us via the contact page and we will verify it against the source.