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Comment by drewg123 | Hacker News Reader

There is a vast difference in the value of $100 within states too. For example, western New York state (eg, Buffalo area) is far cheaper than NYC in terms of median home prices, supermarket prices, etc. Similarly, Richmond VA is far cheaper than the Northern Virginia / DC suburbs area.

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Tax Foundation here. This is a great point and we have a county-by-county breakdown in the works. We will publish that next week, so stay tuned!

You might also consider weighting the state average by population. Populations tend to cluster in cities so I think you'll see the "experienced" cost go higher.

Nope. Houston housing costs are less than California cities. Indeed, the median home cost in the whole state of Texas is 1/3 of California.

How about Metropolitan Statistical Area?

As a Virginian, let me tell you, NoVa might as well be a different state.

True. One of the reasons I left VA :)

As a mountain Virginian, let me add that even the coast is a completely different story from the great place where I live.

x2.

Cape Cod and Boston prices vs Springfield, New Bedford, Fall River and Worcester prices. South of Portland and east of I95 prices vs Bangor prices. There's a lot of interesting information lost by looking at state sized areas. Doing this on a county, or even town level would be far more interesting IMO. More contrast on the map would be nice too.

I really wondered that when I saw this. Oregon looked really good but I really wondered about Portland specifically.

It's a no brainer that the bay area is maybe even worse than the average (?) for California.

NOVA would be very close to DC purchasing power on this map

DC is outrageous. And notoriously, the salaries aren't even close to adjusting for the high COL.

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