Overall
- Bend
- 103.6
- Great Falls
- 96.8
Diff -6.8 RPP
Bend vs Great Falls
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Great Falls is 6.5% less expensive than Bend.
6.5% less expensive
Great Falls, MT is 6.5% less expensive than Bend, OR on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 96.8 vs 103.6). A $100,000 salary in Bend buys about the same as $93,473 in Great Falls; the largest component gap is services.
- Overall RPP 103.6 (Bend) vs 96.8 (Great Falls)
- $100k in Bend ≈ $93,473 purchasing power in Great Falls
- Services drives the gap (-31.9 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair OR:MT 103.6→96.8
TIER-NEAR · CROSS-STATE · SERVICES-LED · BENCH-CROSS · PP-SHIFT
- TIER-NEAR Near tier
- CROSS-STATE OR × MT
- 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
Great Falls, MT is 6.5% less expensive than Bend, OR, a meaningful but not extreme shift. The move decision turns on which budget category creates the 6.8-point overall gap.
This route crosses the national benchmark: Bend is above 100 while Great Falls is below it. That makes the move a change of price regime, not merely a rank swap.
Services leads the difference, with Great Falls 31.9 points lower than Bend. 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 Bend to $93,473 in Great Falls, but it is not a personal spending weight.
How the Price Gap Changed
Bend and Great Falls share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap narrowed, moving from 14.5 to 6.8 RPP points. Bend remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Rents changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 43.3 points between the first and latest shared releases (56.1 to 12.8 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | Bend RPP | Great Falls RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 99.8 | 85.3 | 14.5 points Bend higher |
| 2012 | 95.8 | 92.3 | 3.5 points Bend higher |
| 2016 | 99.0 | 88.0 | 11.0 points Bend higher |
| 2020 | 102.9 | 87.0 | 15.9 points Bend higher |
| 2024 | 103.6 | 96.8 | 6.8 points Bend 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
- Bend
- 105.3
- Great Falls
- 96.0
Diff -9.3 RPP
Services
- Bend
- 105.0
- Great Falls
- 73.0
Diff -31.9 RPP
Rents
- Bend
- 110.0
- Great Falls
- 97.1
Diff -12.8 RPP
| Category | Bend | Great Falls | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 103.6 | 96.8 | -6.8 |
| Goods | 105.3 | 96.0 | -9.3 |
| Services | 105.0 | 73.0 | -31.9 |
| Rents | 110.0 | 97.1 | -12.8 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Bend 103.6
Great Falls 96.8
Goods
Bend 105.3
Great Falls 96.0
Services
Bend 105.0
Great Falls 73.0
Rents
Bend 110.0
Great Falls 97.1
Vertical line = national average (100)
Salary Equivalents
What a salary in Bend would need to be in Great Falls for the same purchasing power:
| In Bend | In Great Falls | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $46,737 | $-3,263 |
| $75,000 | $70,105 | $-4,895 |
| $100,000 | $93,473 | $-6,527 |
| $150,000 | $140,210 | $-9,790 |
$ in Bend = in Great Falls
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (103.6 → 96.8), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
Bend
103.6
Cost Index
Great Falls
96.8
Cost Index
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Great Falls more expensive than Bend?
Great Falls is 6.5% less expensive than Bend. The overall cost index is 96.8 vs 103.6 (national average = 100).
What salary in Great Falls equals $100K in Bend?
A $100,000 salary in Bend has the same purchasing power as $93,473 in Great Falls. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Bend and Great Falls?
Rents in Bend are indexed at 110.0 while Great Falls is at 97.1 (national average = 100). Bend 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.