Ellie Moorhouse always thought she'd be happy living anywhere as long as she had her cats and a collection of books.
It wasn't until she walked into a Victorian-era homestead in the NSW Snowy Mountains region that she really understood what it feels like to be home.
"It was a case of love at first sight," Ms Moorhouse told AAP.
"I felt a really strong connection that I've never felt with any other place."
The Moorhouse family swapped Canberra for a 130-hectare property in Dalgety, 50km south of Cooma, in 2021, drawn in by the wide open spaces and slower pace.
Ms Moorhouse, a counsellor, and her husband David, a software engineer, can both work remotely and considered other lifestyle factors before moving, including access to schools and healthcare in Cooma.
"There's a lot for people to think about when they're considering a regional move. What are the pressure points? What will make life easier?" she said.
The Regional Australia Institute has launched a data tool to help potential tree changers do the calculations on a move to the country.
The Good Life Guide compares median dwelling prices and incomes across the nation and also shows users how far each region is from the beach and national parks.
The tool shows the median home price in Perth's Fremantle is $860,000 with a median income of about $75,000, a price-to-income ratio of 11.6.
That compares to a median home price of $374,000 and income of just over $60,000 in Greater Geraldton, a growing region north of Perth, with a price-to-income ratio of 6.2.
The gap is wider in NSW.
In Sydney's inner west, the median home price is $2 million with a median income of $85,000, a price-to-income ratio of 18.6.
The ratio is 10.7 in the wine region of Mudgee, about 260km north-west of the city, with a median dwelling price of $645,000 and income of just over $60,000.
"The Good Life Guide highlights that many people can earn a comfortable living outside of Australia's biggest cities, as well as get on a realistic path to home ownership," the institute's chief executive Liz Ritchie said.
But a surge of people moving to the regions has driven up house prices and squeezed the rental market since the COVID-19 pandemic, leaving some country residents to move to more remote areas.
Regional councils have told a federal inquiry into local government sustainability they are struggling to provide services in early education, health care and aged care even as extra ratepayers move from the cities.
Ms Ritchie said the regions must get their fair share of the 1.2 million homes planned under the federal government's National Housing Accord, particularly as the bush drives the renewable energy transition.
"The future will be made in regional Australia - but it cannot and will not happen without adequate foundations and the time to lay them is now."
