Privacy

Short version: this site counts page views through Google Analytics and carries Google ads, and both of those set cookies. Beyond that it collects nothing about you except what you type into a form and send on purpose. Longer version, including exactly what each one records and how to refuse it, below.

Last updated September 19, 2026.

What is collected right now

This site currently runs Google Analytics 4 and third-party display advertising. See the sections below for what each of those does. Nothing else on this page has changed: there is still no lead capture, nothing is sold or passed on, and the calculators still run entirely in your browser.

Server logs

This site is hosted on Netlify, which keeps standard server access logs — IP address, the page requested, the time, the browser's user-agent string. That is inherent to serving a web page and is not something this site configures or reads for any purpose other than diagnosing a problem. Netlify's own privacy notice covers what they do with it.

The contact form

The contact form is handled by Netlify Forms. What you type — your name, your email address, the topic you pick, the page you reference and your message — is stored by Netlify and forwarded to the site owner by email so it can be answered.

It is used to reply to you and for nothing else. It is not sold, not rented, not added to a mailing list, and not passed to any third party — and specifically not to any lender, insurer, title company or home-warranty company, because this site has no relationship with any of them. There is no automated marketing sequence behind it.

There is no lead capture form anywhere on this site. No page asks for a phone number, a budget, a timeline or a financing situation. If you want a message you sent deleted, ask through the same form and it will be.

Cookies

This site sets no cookies of its own and stores nothing in your browser's local storage. Google does, on both counts below.

Analytics cookies. Google Analytics sets first-party cookies named _ga and _ga_ followed by a stream identifier, which is how it tells a returning visit from a new one. They hold a randomly generated number and nothing you typed. The analytics section says what is done with them.

Advertising cookies. The ads set their own, and these are the ones that follow you between sites rather than around this one. They are set by Google's advertising domains, not by this site, and they are used to pick which ads you see and to stop you being shown the same one repeatedly. The advertising section says who controls them and how to turn personalised ads off.

Calculator inputs are kept in the page's address bar so that a link you copy carries your own numbers — that is in the URL you can see, it is not stored anywhere, and closing the tab ends it.

Advertising

Running, as of the date at the top of this page. This site carries display advertising through Google AdSense. Every page loads a script from Google, and Google decides which ads to show and where to put them — this site does not pick the ads, does not see who you are, and does not receive or store anything Google collects about you.

Google and its advertising partners set cookies and similar identifiers in your browser and use them to select which ads you see. That can include ads based on your activity on other sites, which is the part most people mean when they say ads follow them around. Google also uses them to limit how often you see the same ad and to detect fraudulent clicks. What Google does with that data is governed by Google's own policy on how it uses data from sites that use its services, not by this page — and that link is the accurate one to read, because this site cannot make promises on Google's behalf.

You can turn the personalisation off without leaving. Google's My Ad Center controls personalised ads across everything Google serves, including here, and optout.aboutads.info covers the wider industry. Any browser setting or extension that blocks third-party scripts blocks the ads too. Nothing on this site is gated behind seeing them: every article and every calculator works the same with the ads blocked.

Why they are here, plainly: display advertising and affiliate links are how this site is paid for, which is set out on the affiliate disclosure page. No advertiser chooses what gets written here or sees anything before it is published.

Analytics

Running, as of the date at the top of this page. This site uses Google Analytics 4 to count visits and see which pages are actually read. Every page loads a script from Google and sets the cookies described above.

What it records is the page you viewed, the page you arrived from, roughly where in the world you are — country and region, derived from your IP address, which Google discards rather than storing here — the kind of device and browser you used, and how long you stayed. It does not record your name, your email address, or anything you type into a calculator on this site; the calculators run entirely in your browser and their numbers are never sent anywhere. Google processes this data as the analytics provider and their own privacy policy governs what they do with it.

The reason it is here is unremarkable: it is how this site knows which articles are worth keeping up to date. If you would rather not be counted, Google publishes a browser opt-out add-on, and any browser setting or extension that blocks third-party scripts blocks it too. Nothing on this site stops working if you do — there is no consent wall, and no page is gated behind being measured.

Children

This site is written for adults deciding where to live and is not directed at children. It does not knowingly collect anything from anyone under 13.

Your choices

You can browse this entire site, including every calculator, without telling it anything about yourself. The calculators run in your browser; the numbers you type are never transmitted. Nothing here is gated behind a form and no page will ask you to register to read it.

What does leave your browser is the analytics page view and the ad requests described above, which go to Google rather than to this site. Blocking them costs you nothing here — no page stops working, no content is withheld, and you will not be asked to unblock anything.

Changes

When this page changes, the date at the top changes with it.

Contact

Questions about any of this go through the contact page.