Burden
Measures current essential-cost load in each geography.
Methodology
Cost Pressure Score Framework
CostPressureIQ models pressure as burden plus change minus offset. The overall score is reported on a 0-100 scale where higher is better (less pressure), while component pressure scores are 0-100 where higher is worse.
Score Construction
How The Index Is Built
Change
Measures acceleration or easing across each component's documented source window.
Offset
Measures income growth that can absorb essential-cost increases.
Source Windows
Annual Baseline And Current Context Stay Separate
The v1.1 annual baseline compares non-overlapping ACS five-year windows: 2020–2024 against 2015–2019. Current electricity, covered-job wage, and CPI context appears separately as a dated Pressure Pulse and does not change the annual Cost Pressure Score.
PressureComponent Contract v1
Stable IDs Used Across Every Geography
insurance_pressure
Insurance Pressure
Owner-cost burden proxy across the documented comparison window; it is not a premium-level insurance series.
tax_pressure
Tax Pressure
Median real estate taxes and change across the documented comparison window.
utility_pressure
Utility Pressure
State residential-electricity price level and change, labeled at its state source resolution.
essential_inflation_pressure
Essential Housing Burden
Direct ACS renter-burden signal and change; it is not a complete local consumer-inflation basket.
income_offset
Income Offset
Median household income level and growth as a pressure offset.
Interpretation
Reading Scores and Trends
Overall Cost Pressure Score
0-100 where 100 is best (lowest net pressure).
Pressure Component Score
0-100 where 100 is worst (highest pressure).
Trend Direction
INCREASING, STABLE, DECREASING, or INSUFFICIENT_DATA.
Percentiles
National percentile compares across the same geography level.
Next Step
Apply Methodology To Real Geographies
After reviewing the framework, move through state, county, and city directories to compare how the same scoring contract behaves across different geographic scales.