COL Data Discovery Results

The COL estimates includes seven categories of expenditure that help meet the basic necessities of households without public or private assistance. These categories were identified from the major components of annual expenses, identified in the Consumer Expenditure Survey. The following figure summarizes the categories and their corresponding sources of information.

The seven components, housing, food, transportation, healthcare, childcare, other necessities, and household tax liability are also included in the publicly available cost-of-living estimates from the Washington State Center for Women’s Welfare’s Self Sufficiency Standard; Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Living Wage Calculator, and the Economic Policy Institute’s Family Budget Calculator. Our model differs in that we have included the cost of broadband accessibility as a component and provide estimates below the county level.





The COL estimates use multiple sources of publicly available information. In the next table, we include the data sources, geographical area, geography adjustments, inflationadjustments, and assumptions that were used for the seven components of the COL.



Components of the Cost-of-Living:Date, Data Source, Geographic Area, and Adjustments

Component Data
Updates 		Data
Source 		Original
Geographic
Area 		Geographic
Area
Adjustment 		Inflation
(Time)
Adjustment 		Final
Geographic
Area
   
Housing    		   
Yearly    		   
HUD   Small Area 40% of Fair   Market Rent     		   
ZIP   code
   
    		   
ZIPS   codes are distributed to census tracts based on demographic data    		   
NA    		   
Census   
   
tract   
   
Food    		   
Monthly    		   
USDA   Food Plans: Cost of Food Reports (monthly reports)
   
Low,   Moderate, and Liberal Food Plans    		   
National       		   
National   adjusted to the county level using 2020 Feeding America’s Map the Meal Gap   estimates at the county and independent city level    		   
Consumer   Price Index, Washington-Arlington-Alexandria area – November 2022;
   
Consumer   Price Index, Washington-Arlington-Alexandria area – November 2021
   
(used   to adjust the 2020 Feeding America’s Map the Meal Gap data)    		   
County   
   
Transportation    		   
Yearly    		   
H+T   (Housing + Transit Affordability Index)
   
non-profit   Center for Neighborhood   Technology
   
(Methodology)    		   
Census   tract    		   
NA    		   
NA    		   
Census   
   
tract   
   
Healthcare    		   
Yearly    		   
U.S. Centers for   Medicare & Medicaid Services,
   
Health Insurance Market Place     		   
ZIP   code
   
    		   
NA    		   
NA    		   
County   
   
Childcare    		   
Biennial    		   
Department   of Labor Women’s Bureau National Database of Median Childcare   Prices
   
(Methodology)    		   
County    		   
NA    		   
Department   of Labor Women’s Bureau National Methodology used to impute the Washington,   D.C. child care area cost from 2012 to 2022    		   
County   
   
Broadband    		   
NA    		   
Scraped   from BroadbandNow
   
Median   of the lowest prices for 100 Mbps download plans for   addresses from the
   
Department   of Transportation, National Address Database    		   
Address   at the center of a Census block     		   
NA    		   
NA    		   
Census   tract   
   
Other   Necessities    		   
NA   
National Academy of Sciences, An Updated Measure of Poverty: (Re)Drawing the Line (2023) Report. (20%) 		   
NA    		   
NA    		   
NA    		   
NA   
   
Taxes    		   
Yearly    		   
National   Bureau of Economic Research’s program TAXSIM Version   35 which has an interface in R usincometaxes    		   
State    		   
NA    		   
NA    		   
State   



Assumptions


Component
Price by Category Combinations
Assumptions
Housing · Yearly
· Apartment sizes: studio, 1, 2, 3, and 4 bedrooms 		· 1-person in a studio
· 2-people in a 1 bedroom
· 3-people in a 2 bedroom
· 4-people or more in a 3 bedroom
Food · Monthly
· Four food plans: low, moderate, and liberal
· Gender: female and male
· Age: Child 1, 1-3, 4-5, 6-8, 9-11; Female 12-13, 14-18, 19-50, 51-70, 71+; Male 12-13, 14-18, 19-50, 51-70, 71+ 		· half of the people in a household are female and half are male
· infants < 1 year
· toddlers 1-3 years
· preschoolers 4-5 years
· schoolers 6-11 years
· teenagers 12-18 years
· adults older than 19 years
Transportation · Yearly
 · includes auto ownership, auto use, and transit use
· independent of family size and composition
Healthcare · Yearly
· Household size
· Household composition
· Age
· Income 		Households purchase health insurance through the Affordable Care Act Market Place.
Childcare · Biennial
· Type: center and home-base
· Age: infant, toddler, preschool, schoolers 		· parents use home-based care children
· >12 (teenagers) do not require childcare
· infants < 1
· toddlers 1-3
· preschoolers 4-5
· schoolers 6-18
Broadband · Yearly
 · median of the lowest price for 100 Mbps download speed
Other Necessities · Yearly
 · 20% of a household’s expenditure on Housing and Food.
Taxes · Yearly
· Household size
· Household composition
· Age of children
· Income 		· all households are renters therefore pay no property taxes
· tax liability includes income and sales taxes at the federal and state levels
· there are no household deductions