Editorial policy
RelocateMath publishes calculators, rankings and guides for people deciding whether to move to another state. This page explains where our numbers come from, how we check them, how often they change and what we do when we get something wrong. Abu Hasnat (founder & editor) is responsible for everything published here.
How we choose sources
We build every number from the most direct public source we can find, in this order:
- The agency that sets the rule or collects the data. Tax brackets, deductions and credits come from the IRS and each state's revenue department; registration fees and license deadlines from state motor-vehicle agencies; rents, home values and property tax from the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey; price levels from the Bureau of Economic Analysis; electricity prices from the Energy Information Administration; disaster risk from FEMA's National Risk Index.
- A published benchmark, named on the page, where no government figure exists: Freddie Mac's weekly mortgage rate survey, AAA's state gas averages, the NAIC's average car insurance spending, KFF's analysis of CMS Marketplace premiums, and published moving and car-shipping prices (moveBuddha route pages checked against U-Pack, HireAHelper and Move.org, and Matson's rates for Alaska and Hawaii).
We prefer the official document over a summary of it, and a dated release over an undated page. When sources disagree we use the agency's own figure and say on the page if the difference matters. We don't use figures from sources that won't say how they were produced, and we don't reprint data whose owner doesn't allow it: when that happens we show only the individual facts we need, with the source named, or leave the figure out.
Transparent formulas
Each calculator explains its assumptions next to its result, and our methodology documents the models, formulas and data sources used across the site. If we simplify a rule (for example, standard deductions only, or one typical local tax rate for a suburb), we say what we left out. Estimates that depend on a model, such as moving costs, are shown as ranges, not single prices.
To check a worked example, start with the health-plan budget formula, inputs and two-month arithmetic. Our three commuter tax paths and New York-to-Philadelphia offer and rent comparison state the modeled scenario and its limits beside the results. These examples let you check what a calculation includes before entering your own figures.
Why we publish separate state and route pages
State guides and route reports use shared templates, public datasets and programmed calculations. A state guide brings together that state's benchmarks and relevant agency guidance; a commuter route distinguishes the home state from the work state; a city comparison combines the two places' tax and housing assumptions. The purpose is to help with a specific planning decision, such as finding the official marketplace after moving or comparing cash left from a job offer.
Our standard for a separate report is a clear planning task supported by relevant location data, a calculation or sourced jurisdiction rules, with its scope explained. A report's figures retain their individual source editions, and model outputs are identified as estimates. Template generation and automated checks do not establish that every report has received an independent review. The named editor remains responsible for its accuracy, usefulness and corrections.
How figures are checked
Tax rules are the easiest place to make a costly mistake, so the tax engine is covered by automated tests that compare its results with the states' own tax tables and worked examples. Other data files are checked by tests too, and every build of the site is checked for broken links, missing values and pages that render a blank or impossible number. A build that fails any of these checks is not published.
We are not a tax firm. RelocateMath has no CPA or Enrolled Agent on staff, and no page says a figure was professionally reviewed unless a named, licensed reviewer actually checked it.
How often data is updated
- Weekly: mortgage rates (Freddie Mac's survey, published on Thursdays) and state gas prices (AAA) are refreshed automatically every Thursday. The update runs the tests on the new data before it is published, and raises an alert to the editor if either feed hasn't updated for two weeks, so stale figures don't sit unnoticed.
- Yearly: federal and state income tax brackets, deductions and credits when the new year's tables are published, and retirement income rules.
- When new releases come out: Census, BEA, EIA and FEMA data, Marketplace premiums and insurance averages, usually once a year each.
- At least once a year: state motor-vehicle, driver license and residency rules, and the moving-cost price checks.
“Page updated” records a substantive revision to a page's explanation, model or displayed figures. The source edition identifies the year or period measured; a source-check date records when a particular rule or guidance was checked. These dates can differ. Updating one calculation or paragraph does not mean every underlying dataset was refreshed. Data tables and titles retain the year of the release they use.
Independence
Rankings are calculated from data, never paid for. Advertising is clearly separated from content, any affiliate link sits in a box labelled “Sponsored” with a note beside it, and neither has any influence on results. No company can pay to change a figure, a ranking or its place in a table. See how the site is funded.
Use of AI tools
The site's code and much of its research were built with the help of AI tools. They are used to write and test software, read source documents and draft text. AI-assisted changes can be checked and published through an automated workflow. The named editor remains responsible for the site's content and corrections. Published figures should be traceable to the sources and model assumptions stated on the page; AI output itself is not a source. Source checks, automated tests and browser checks do not constitute independent professional review.
Corrections
If you spot an error, email hello@relocatemath.com with the page address, the figure and a link to your source (more on what to include). We check every report against the original source. Confirmed errors are fixed on every page that uses the figure, usually within a few days, and listed with the date and what changed in our corrections log. We also log errors we find ourselves. We don't quietly change a published figure that was wrong.