Overall
- Albuquerque
- 95.5
- Kennewick-Richland
- 100.1
Diff +4.5 RPP
Albuquerque vs Kennewick-Richland
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Kennewick-Richland is 4.7% more expensive than Albuquerque.
4.7% more expensive
Kennewick-Richland, WA is 4.7% more expensive than Albuquerque, NM on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 100.1 vs 95.5). A $100,000 salary in Albuquerque buys about the same as $104,744 in Kennewick-Richland; the largest component gap is services.
- Overall RPP 95.5 (Albuquerque) vs 100.1 (Kennewick-Richland)
- $100k in Albuquerque ≈ $104,744 purchasing power in Kennewick-Richland
- Services drives the gap (+15.7 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair NM:WA 95.5→100.1
TIER-NEAR · CROSS-STATE · SERVICES-LED · BENCH-CROSS · PP-SHIFT
- TIER-NEAR Near tier
- CROSS-STATE NM × WA
- SERVICES-LED Services-led gap
- BENCH-CROSS Benchmark cross
- PP-SHIFT PP shift
Instrument codes from this pair's BEA Regional Price Parities (overall · goods · services · rents · national benchmark 100 · purchasing-power conversion), not a ranking or recommendation.
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
Kennewick-Richland, WA is 4.7% more expensive than Albuquerque, NM, a meaningful but not extreme shift. The move decision turns on which budget category creates the 4.5-point overall gap.
This route crosses the national benchmark: Kennewick-Richland is above 100 while Albuquerque is below it. That makes the move a change of price regime, not merely a rank swap.
Services leads the difference, with Kennewick-Richland 15.7 points higher than Albuquerque. Goods, services, and rents all point in the same broad direction, making the headline comparison more transferable across household types.
Comparable population context is incomplete for this pair, so no market-scale explanation is inferred from the price indexes.
For a service-heavy household, test childcare, health, and other locally supplied costs before relying on rent alone. The BEA ratio converts $100,000 in Albuquerque to $104,744 in Kennewick-Richland, but it is not a personal spending weight.
How the Price Gap Changed
Albuquerque and Kennewick-Richland share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap widened, moving from 2.8 to 4.5 RPP points. Kennewick-Richland remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Services changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 28.7 points between the first and latest shared releases (12.9 to 15.7 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | Albuquerque RPP | Kennewick-Richland RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 97.0 | 94.2 | 2.8 points Albuquerque higher |
| 2012 | 99.6 | 99.3 | 0.3 points Albuquerque higher |
| 2016 | 96.6 | 97.4 | 0.8 points Kennewick-Richland higher |
| 2020 | 94.2 | 99.8 | 5.6 points Kennewick-Richland higher |
| 2024 | 95.5 | 100.1 | 4.5 points Kennewick-Richland higher |
Annual BEA Regional Price Parity releases; a higher index means a higher price level relative to the national average of 100. Selected years shown from the full shared series.
Category Breakdown
Goods
- Albuquerque
- 96.1
- Kennewick-Richland
- 105.0
Diff +8.9 RPP
Services
- Albuquerque
- 77.9
- Kennewick-Richland
- 93.6
Diff +15.7 RPP
Rents
- Albuquerque
- 89.2
- Kennewick-Richland
- 94.8
Diff +5.7 RPP
| Category | Albuquerque | Kennewick-Richland | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 95.5 | 100.1 | +4.5 |
| Goods | 96.1 | 105.0 | +8.9 |
| Services | 77.9 | 93.6 | +15.7 |
| Rents | 89.2 | 94.8 | +5.7 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Albuquerque 95.5
Kennewick-Richland 100.1
Goods
Albuquerque 96.1
Kennewick-Richland 105.0
Services
Albuquerque 77.9
Kennewick-Richland 93.6
Rents
Albuquerque 89.2
Kennewick-Richland 94.8
Vertical line = national average (100)
Salary Equivalents
What a salary in Albuquerque would need to be in Kennewick-Richland for the same purchasing power:
| In Albuquerque | In Kennewick-Richland | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $52,372 | +$2,372 |
| $75,000 | $78,558 | +$3,558 |
| $100,000 | $104,744 | +$4,744 |
| $150,000 | $157,116 | +$7,116 |
$ in Albuquerque = in Kennewick-Richland
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (95.5 → 100.1), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
Albuquerque
95.5
Cost Index
Kennewick-Richland
100.1
Cost Index
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Kennewick-Richland more expensive than Albuquerque?
Kennewick-Richland is 4.7% more expensive than Albuquerque. The overall cost index is 100.1 vs 95.5 (national average = 100).
What salary in Kennewick-Richland equals $100K in Albuquerque?
A $100,000 salary in Albuquerque has the same purchasing power as $104,744 in Kennewick-Richland. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Albuquerque and Kennewick-Richland?
Rents in Albuquerque are indexed at 89.2 while Kennewick-Richland is at 94.8 (national average = 100). Kennewick-Richland has higher rents.
Data sources
- BEA Regional Price Parities (RPP), the cost-of-living indices shown on this page
- U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (ACS), gross-rent observations behind the rents component
- BLS Consumer Price Index (CPI), goods and services price relatives
- BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), labor-driven services component
- HUD Fair Market Rents (FMR), 40th-percentile rent cross-reference
Every figure on PlainCost is rendered directly from BEA Regional Price Parity source data, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, our changelog, or report a data error. Data current as of 2026-08-11. Rankings measure the published cost-of-living index only; we don't recommend where to live or rate any metro's quality of life.