Overall
- Boise City
- 98.4
Diff -12.4 RPP
Boise City vs Brownsville-Harlingen
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Brownsville-Harlingen is 12.6% less expensive than Boise City.
12.6% less expensive
Brownsville-Harlingen, TX is 12.6% less expensive than Boise City, ID on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 86.0 vs 98.4). A $100,000 salary in Boise City buys about the same as $87,381 in Brownsville-Harlingen; the largest component gap is rents.
- Overall RPP 98.4 (Boise City) vs 86.0 (Brownsville-Harlingen)
- $100k in Boise City ≈ $87,381 purchasing power in Brownsville-Harlingen
- Rents drives the gap (-47.9 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair ID:TX 98.4→86.0
TIER-GAP · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BOTH-BELOW · PP-SHIFT
- TIER-GAP Clear tier gap
- CROSS-STATE ID × TX
- SPLIT-BUDGET Split budget
- BOTH-BELOW Both below 100
- 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.
Category Breakdown
Goods
- Boise City
- 96.2
Diff -2.4 RPP
Services
- Boise City
- 70.7
Diff +10.5 RPP
Rents
- Boise City
- 105.6
Diff -47.9 RPP
| Category | Boise City | Brownsville-Harlingen | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 98.4 | 86.0 | -12.4 |
| Goods | 96.2 | 93.8 | -2.4 |
| Services | 70.7 | 81.2 | +10.5 |
| Rents | 105.6 | 57.7 | -47.9 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Boise City 98.4
Brownsville-Harlingen 86.0
Goods
Boise City 96.2
Brownsville-Harlingen 93.8
Services
Boise City 70.7
Brownsville-Harlingen 81.2
Rents
Boise City 105.6
Brownsville-Harlingen 57.7
Vertical line = national average (100)
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
Rents creates the largest separation: Brownsville-Harlingen is 47.9 points lower. But services move against the overall direction, so this is a split budget rather than a clean across-the-board winner.
Boise City, ID and Brownsville-Harlingen, TX sit in clearly different price tiers, separated by 12.4 RPP points. At this distance, treating the same nominal salary as equivalent would materially change purchasing power.
Both metros remain below the U.S. benchmark of 100. This comparison chooses between two below-average price levels; “more expensive” here does not mean nationally expensive.
Comparable population context is incomplete for this pair, so no market-scale explanation is inferred from the price indexes.
For a housing-sensitive move, validate the rent gap first: HUD Fair Market Rent and the actual unit size can overturn what the blended index implies. On the BEA ratio alone, $100,000 in Boise City corresponds to $87,381 in Brownsville-Harlingen.
Boise City
98.4
Cost Index
Brownsville-Harlingen
86.0
Cost Index
Salary Equivalents
What a salary in Boise City would need to be in Brownsville-Harlingen for the same purchasing power:
| In Boise City | In Brownsville-Harlingen | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $43,690 | $-6,310 |
| $75,000 | $65,536 | $-9,464 |
| $100,000 | $87,381 | $-12,619 |
| $150,000 | $131,071 | $-18,929 |
$ in Boise City = in Brownsville-Harlingen
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (98.4 → 86.0), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
How the Price Gap Changed
Boise City and Brownsville-Harlingen share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap widened, moving from 10.2 to 12.4 RPP points. Boise City remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Services changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 20.3 points between the first and latest shared releases (30.7 to 10.5 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | Boise City RPP | Brownsville-Harlingen RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 95.3 | 85.0 | 10.2 points Boise City higher |
| 2012 | 96.7 | 89.2 | 7.4 points Boise City higher |
| 2016 | 93.2 | 89.5 | 3.6 points Boise City higher |
| 2020 | 93.6 | 85.0 | 8.6 points Boise City higher |
| 2024 | 98.4 | 86.0 | 12.4 points Boise City 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.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Brownsville-Harlingen more expensive than Boise City?
Brownsville-Harlingen is 12.6% less expensive than Boise City. The overall cost index is 86.0 vs 98.4 (national average = 100).
What salary in Brownsville-Harlingen equals $100K in Boise City?
A $100,000 salary in Boise City has the same purchasing power as $87,381 in Brownsville-Harlingen. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Boise City and Brownsville-Harlingen?
Rents in Boise City are indexed at 105.6 while Brownsville-Harlingen is at 57.7 (national average = 100). Boise City 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.