I finally called the Chamber of Com. in our local area and asked about the
COL for our area.  There is some very interesting info out there that all of
you considering your circumstances/moving/ etc might want to look into.
There are two web sites out there for the Chamber of com.  They are:
ACCRA.org and ACCE.org where you can access the COL for multiple areas thru
out the country.  ie:San Diego Composite is 119.9%  where Bellingham,Wa is
113.65% and New York is 226.9%, Houston,Tx. is 94.3% They have the areas
broken down by Grocery, housing,utilities, transportation, healthcare, etc.
very interesting reading. Carmen