A two-parent family with a preschooler and a school-age child earning $120,000 keeps $38,211 a year in Nashville after 2026 taxes, rent, childcare and everyday costs, and ends $5,206 short in New York City at the same income. The $43,417 swing comes from four lines: rent, childcare, state and city income taxes, and food prices.
The household
This is MoveMath’s standard family on the moving pages: two adults earning $120,000 combined (a 60/40 split, married filing jointly), one preschooler (36–54 months in DOL’s definition) and one school-age child, both in center-based care 52 weeks a year. They rent a two-bedroom at HUD Fiscal Year 2027 Fair Market Rent (HUD’s 40th-percentile gross rent, utilities included), drive two cars 12,000 miles each, buy food on the USDA Moderate-Cost plan (August 2026), and spend $500 a month each on other goods and services at US prices — an adjustable estimate scaled by BEA’s 2024 price levels, not measured data.
Childcare prices are DOL Women’s Bureau National Database of Childcare Prices county medians for 2022, the latest year published, multiplied by 1.2224 — the change in the BLS consumer price index for day care and preschool from the 2022 average to August 2026.
Budget by metro
| Metro | Total 2026 taxes | 2-BR Fair Market Rent | Childcare | Food | Left over |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nashville, TN | $14,820 | $1,798/mo | $14,155 | $14,814 | $38,211 |
| Dallas, TX | $14,820 | $1,807/mo | $21,548 | $15,828 | $29,864 |
| Austin, TX | $14,820 | $1,817/mo | $25,807 | $14,430 | $27,668 |
| Phoenix, AZ | $16,783 | $1,734/mo | $24,472 | $14,625 | $26,139 |
| Denver, CO | $19,349 | $2,169/mo | $31,274 | $15,538 | $11,751 |
| Los Angeles, CA | $18,544 | $2,964/mo | $26,924 | $16,411 | $3,452 |
| New York, NY-NJ | $24,383 | $2,971/mo | $30,765 | $16,970 | −$5,206 |
Sources: HUD FY2027 Fair Market Rents (91 FR 56156); DOL NDCP 2022 prices for each metro’s principal county, CPI-adjusted; USDA food plans, August 2026; BEA RPP 2024; 2026 taxes from the MoveMath engine, including the $2,200-per-child federal Child Tax Credit. “Left over” also subtracts gasoline, other spending and state sales tax.
Each figure is reproducible in the relocation budget planner by switching the metro, and the moving pages, such as New York to Austin, use the same household.
Why Nashville comes out ahead
- No income tax on wages. Tennessee does not tax wages, so the family pays only federal income tax, Social Security and Medicare: $14,820.
- Low childcare prices. Davidson County’s 2022 center prices put two children’s care at $14,155 a year in current dollars, the lowest of these seven.
- Moderate rent. The two-bedroom Fair Market Rent is $1,798 a month.
Dallas and Austin have the same tax bill as Nashville, but childcare costs about $7,400 more in Dallas and $11,700 more in Austin.
Why New York comes up short
- Taxes: $24,383 in total, including $5,255 of New York State tax, $3,727 of New York City tax and $581 for state disability and paid family leave.
- Rent: $35,652 a year for a two-bedroom (Kings County, which shares one HUD rent area with the other boroughs).
- Childcare: $30,765 a year.
Those three lines take $90,800 of the $120,000. Food ($16,970), gasoline, other spending and sales tax push the budget below zero. The family needs $127,439 just to break even in New York; Los Angeles requires $115,274.
Childcare is the line most people underestimate
Among the 55 metros of 1 million or more people with DOL prices, center care for a preschooler and a school-age child runs from $14,155 a year (Nashville and Memphis) to $58,141 (San Francisco), with Seattle at $43,132. In Seattle and San Francisco that one line is larger than the rent. The childcare cost calculator shows prices for any county by age band and care type.
Some metros have no DOL price at all: every Indiana and New Mexico metro, among others. There the budget leaves childcare out and says so, which flatters the result.
The large metros at both ends
On $120,000, the family keeps the most in Memphis ($44,167), San Antonio ($38,600), Nashville ($38,211), Tulsa ($36,553) and Oklahoma City ($36,208). It comes up short in Seattle (−$4,468), New York (−$5,206), Boston (−$5,447), San Jose (−$26,638) and San Francisco (−$37,073).
Rent and the 30 percent line
Thirty percent of $120,000 is $3,000 a month, HUD’s cost-burden line. Every two-bedroom in the table is under it. A three-bedroom is not in New York or Los Angeles, where the Fair Market Rent is $3,760; it is $2,309 in Nashville and $2,846 in Denver. For how many bedrooms a family needs, see how many bedrooms your family needs.
Full family budgets for every metro are on pages such as Nashville, New York and Dallas, and you can compare two metros for your own family with the cost of living calculator.