Move Meter — compare where you live with any city or ZIP in America
Move Meter
Any U.S. city, town or ZIP
Try Grand Haven, Holland or Saugatuck
Or start from a common move
02 / Method
Nothing here
is a black box.
Each measure is compared between the two places and mapped onto a 0–100 scale where 50 is an even trade. Prices and incomes are compared as ratios; rates that can sit at zero — income tax, unemployment — are compared in percentage points. The curve is bounded, so one enormous gap cannot swamp the rest.
A category score is the average of its measures. The Move Score is the weighted average of the four categories. Where the Census suppressed an estimate the measure is dropped and the remaining weights are re-normalized rather than quietly counted as parity.
It is an index, not an appraisal. It cannot see the school your child would attend, the water you would look at, or what a specific house costs. That conversation is the next step.
Weighting
- Housing30%
- Cost of living20%
- Earning power25%
- Daily life25%
What each measure means
- Median home value
- Median value of owner-occupied housing units, as estimated by the Census Bureau.
- Monthly cost with a mortgage
- Median monthly owner cost for units with a mortgage — payment, taxes, insurance and utilities together.
- Annual property tax
- Median real estate taxes paid on owner-occupied housing units.
- Effective property tax rate
- Median taxes paid divided by median home value — what the millage actually costs an owner.
- Median rent
- Median gross rent — contract rent plus tenant-paid utilities.
- Top state income tax
- The state's top marginal individual income tax rate. Local income taxes are not included.
- Sales tax
- State sales tax plus the population-weighted average local sales tax.
- Home value to income
- Median home value divided by median household income — how many years of local income a local home costs.
- Median household income
- Median income of all households, in the prior twelve months.
- Unemployment rate
- Share of the civilian labor force aged 16 and over counted as unemployed.
- Adults with a degree
- Share of adults 25 and over holding a bachelor's degree or higher — a proxy for the local professional labor market, not for school quality.
- Average commute
- Mean travel time to work for workers who do not work from home, one way.
- Owner-occupied homes
- Share of occupied homes lived in by their owner — how settled the housing stock is.
- People per square mile
- Population divided by land area. Lower means more room; whether that is better is yours to decide.
Sources
- U.S. Census Bureau — 2019–2023 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates. Tables B01003, B01002, B19013, B25077, B25064, B25088, B25103, B25003, B23025, B15003, B08013, B08303. Retrieved 2026-07-24.
- U.S. Census Bureau — 2024 U.S. Census Bureau Gazetteer Files (place and ZCTA coordinates, land area).
- Tax Foundation — State Individual Income Tax Rates and Brackets, 2026 and State and Local Sales Tax Rates, 2026. Both as of January 1, 2026.
Figures describe a whole city or ZIP Code Tabulation Area, not an individual property, and small places carry wide margins of error. ZIP areas are approximations of postal geography drawn by the Census Bureau. This tool is offered for orientation only and is not tax, legal or investment advice.
03 / Next
The data narrows it.
Rennie decides it.
A score cannot tell you which side of the channel gets the afternoon light, which lake allows the boat you own, or which township will let you build what you have in mind. Bring the comparison — Rennie will tell you what it leaves out.