BiggerPockets Money · Budget Lab · 2024 CE Survey Data
Budget Calculator
See how your household spending stacks up against statistically similar American families, calibrated to your income quintile, household size, age, and local cost of living.
No location selected -- showing national averages
Data quality note
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Note on location accuracy: Housing uses HUD Fair Market Rents (40th percentile of local rental costs), which may be below median market rent in fast-appreciating areas. For non-metro areas, price adjustments (groceries, healthcare, transportation) use statewide averages -- BEA does not publish sub-metro price data. You can override this in the location panel above.
Note on data quality: Peer benchmarks use the 2024 BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey (released December 2025), anchored to published income-quintile means with dampened size and age adjustments. Housing is separately anchored to HUD Fair Market Rents for your selected location. The CPI adjustment below is a rough single-number estimate; individual categories inflate at very different rates.
How This Works
Data sources and methodology
This tool compares your household spending against similar U.S. households. Housing is anchored to HUD Fair Market Rents for your selected location -- not derived from a national average. For micropolitan and non-metro areas, non-housing price adjustments use statewide BEA averages (the finest granularity BEA publishes); a reference override lets you substitute a nearby metro's price data. All other categories use BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey baselines adjusted by BEA Regional Price Parities and USDA Moderate-Cost Food Plan regional factors. Not financial advice.
National Spending Baselines
BLS CE 2024 · released 2025-12-19
Peer benchmarks for all non-housing categories are anchored to BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey published means by income quintile, with dampened size and age adjustments (0.5× deviation ratios from CE Tables 1300 and 1200) to reduce double-counting of correlated demographics.
Savings and Pensions are national averages; no local price adjustment applied.
HUD FY2026 · county-level matched to 739 LOCS entries
Housing benchmarks use HUD Fair Market Rent figures for your selected area, sized to your household (studio through 4BR). FMRs are the 40th percentile of gross rents -- a conservative estimate below the market median in fast-appreciating areas.
All 739 location entries use actual HUD-published FMR values matched by CBSA code or area name. State-level entries (dq=0) use population-weighted means of their county FMRs.
Childcare benchmarks use the DOL Women's Bureau National Database of Childcare Prices (NDCP), which compiles county-level median prices from state CCDF Market Rate Surveys.
Prices are inflated from their 2022 survey base to 2025 using the BLS CPI for Tuition, Other School Fees, and Childcare (CUSR0000SEEB).
When the "full-time paid childcare" toggle is on, the benchmark reflects center-based care prices from the NDCP, weighted by an age distribution of children that varies by reference person age and household size. School-age tiers are excluded (children in full-time daycare are pre-school-age). The number of children in care can be overridden manually.
State-level data covers all 51 states; county-level precision available via ETL from raw NDCP files.
Non-housing prices use BEA Regional Price Parities (national = 100). Food and transportation map to the Goods index; healthcare and entertainment to Other Services; utilities to All Items.
Data gap for non-metro areas: BEA only publishes RPP for 384 MSAs and 50 states. Micropolitan and rural entries use statewide averages as a proxy -- clearly flagged in the tool. You can override with a nearby metro's data.
Food costs also incorporate USDA Moderate-Cost Food Plan regional factors: NE +10%, W +7%, MW 0%, S -5%.
All data is US Government public domain (HUD, BEA, BLS, USDA). Benchmarks reflect statistical peer averages. Confirm any spending decisions with a fee-only financial advisor.
BiggerPockets Money · Budget Lab
How to read this. The peer benchmark reflects what a statistically similar household (matched on income quintile, household size, and age bracket) spends. Housing is anchored to the HUD FMR for your selected location and bedroom count; all other categories use national BLS CE baselines adjusted by BEA RPP for your area. For non-metro areas, non-housing RPP uses the statewide average -- you can override this with a nearby metro's data using the "Override price reference" option in the location panel. Leave a category blank to use the peer benchmark as your spend. The flexibility slider (0 to 100%) on each row sets what fraction of that category you consider adjustable.
Limitations. FMRs are the 40th percentile of rental costs, not the median. BEA price parities are regional indexes, not neighborhood-level. Healthcare varies enormously within a region. Income, age, and size multipliers are national patterns and do not vary by geography. Use as a directional benchmark, not a precise budget target.