QUESTION: Why would the Geographic Assessor not report COL values for some comparisons?
When a very expensive Base Location is selected, it is possible that the default spending pattern (based on the National Average) will be “too rich” for the expensive Base Location. For example, if you have selected New York - Manhattan as your Base Location, the costs to buy the National Average life-style in this relatively expensive city will exceed the spending level specified.
When this occurs, you can switch the expensive city to the destination and use the National Average as the base — this expresses the comparison in dollars relative to the Base Location.
A more comprehensive alternative would be to continue your research using the updated Two City Comparison in the enhanced Geographic Assessor. While you may still encounter this problem, the enhanced Two City Comparison allows you to adjust the assumptions to make the Base Location more “affordable,” such as lowering the housing square footage (contact info.eri@erieri.com to subscribe to the enhanced Geographic Assessor).