Overall
- Boise City
- 98.4
- Bellingham
- 103.3
Diff +4.9 RPP
Boise City vs Bellingham
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Bellingham is 5% more expensive than Boise City.
5% more expensive
Bellingham, WA is 5% more expensive than Boise City, ID on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 103.3 vs 98.4). A $100,000 salary in Boise City buys about the same as $105,024 in Bellingham; the largest component gap is services.
- Overall RPP 98.4 (Boise City) vs 103.3 (Bellingham)
- $100k in Boise City ≈ $105,024 purchasing power in Bellingham
- Services drives the gap (+29.2 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair ID:WA 98.4→103.3
TIER-NEAR · CROSS-STATE · SERVICES-LED · BENCH-CROSS · PP-SHIFT
- TIER-NEAR Near tier
- CROSS-STATE ID × 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
Bellingham, WA is 5% more expensive than Boise City, ID, a meaningful but not extreme shift. The move decision turns on which budget category creates the 4.9-point overall gap.
This route crosses the national benchmark: Bellingham is above 100 while Boise City is below it. That makes the move a change of price regime, not merely a rank swap.
Services leads the difference, with Bellingham 29.2 points higher than Boise City. 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 Boise City to $105,024 in Bellingham, but it is not a personal spending weight.
Category Breakdown
Goods
- Boise City
- 96.2
- Bellingham
- 105.0
Diff +8.8 RPP
Services
- Boise City
- 70.7
- Bellingham
- 99.9
Diff +29.2 RPP
Rents
- Boise City
- 105.6
- Bellingham
- 112.9
Diff +7.4 RPP
| Category | Boise City | Bellingham | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 98.4 | 103.3 | +4.9 |
| Goods | 96.2 | 105.0 | +8.8 |
| Services | 70.7 | 99.9 | +29.2 |
| Rents | 105.6 | 112.9 | +7.4 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Boise City 98.4
Bellingham 103.3
Goods
Boise City 96.2
Bellingham 105.0
Services
Boise City 70.7
Bellingham 99.9
Rents
Boise City 105.6
Bellingham 112.9
Vertical line = national average (100)
Salary Equivalents
What a salary in Boise City would need to be in Bellingham for the same purchasing power:
| In Boise City | In Bellingham | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $52,512 | +$2,512 |
| $75,000 | $78,768 | +$3,768 |
| $100,000 | $105,024 | +$5,024 |
| $150,000 | $157,536 | +$7,536 |
$ in Boise City = in Bellingham
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (98.4 → 103.3), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
Boise City
98.4
Cost Index
Bellingham
103.3
Cost Index
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Bellingham more expensive than Boise City?
Bellingham is 5% more expensive than Boise City. The overall cost index is 103.3 vs 98.4 (national average = 100).
What salary in Bellingham equals $100K in Boise City?
A $100,000 salary in Boise City has the same purchasing power as $105,024 in Bellingham. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Boise City and Bellingham?
Rents in Boise City are indexed at 105.6 while Bellingham is at 112.9 (national average = 100). Bellingham 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.