Overall
- Boise City
- 98.4
Diff -1.1 RPP
Boise City vs Panama City-Panama City Beach
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Panama City-Panama City Beach is 1.1% less expensive than Boise City.
1.1% less expensive
Panama City-Panama City Beach, FL is 1.1% less expensive than Boise City, ID on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 97.3 vs 98.4). A $100,000 salary in Boise City buys about the same as $98,887 in Panama City-Panama City Beach; the largest component gap is services.
- Overall RPP 98.4 (Boise City) vs 97.3 (Panama City-Panama City Beach)
- $100k in Boise City ≈ $98,887 purchasing power in Panama City-Panama City Beach
- Services drives the gap (+17.4 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair ID:FL 98.4→97.3
PHOTO-FINISH · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BOTH-BELOW · PP-PAR
- PHOTO-FINISH Photo finish
- CROSS-STATE ID × FL
- SPLIT-BUDGET Split budget
- BOTH-BELOW Both below 100
- PP-PAR PP near-par
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.
Boise City
98.4
Cost Index
Panama City-Panama City Beach
97.3
Cost Index
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
Boise City, ID and Panama City-Panama City Beach, FL are a photo finish on overall price level, only 1.1 RPP points apart. A salary conversion is therefore a fine adjustment, not evidence of a fundamentally different cost regime.
Services creates the largest separation: Panama City-Panama City Beach is 17.4 points higher. But services and goods move against the overall direction, so this is a split budget rather than a clean across-the-board winner.
Comparable population context is incomplete for this pair, so no market-scale explanation is inferred from the price indexes.
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.
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 $98,887 in Panama City-Panama City Beach, but it is not a personal spending weight.
Category Breakdown
Goods
- Boise City
- 96.2
Diff +0.1 RPP
Services
- Boise City
- 70.7
Diff +17.4 RPP
Rents
- Boise City
- 105.6
Diff -9.2 RPP
| Category | Boise City | Panama City-Panama City Beach | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 98.4 | 97.3 | -1.1 |
| Goods | 96.2 | 96.2 | +0.1 |
| Services | 70.7 | 88.1 | +17.4 |
| Rents | 105.6 | 96.4 | -9.2 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Boise City 98.4
Panama City-Panama City Beach 97.3
Goods
Boise City 96.2
Panama City-Panama City Beach 96.2
Services
Boise City 70.7
Panama City-Panama City Beach 88.1
Rents
Boise City 105.6
Panama City-Panama City Beach 96.4
Vertical line = national average (100)
How the Price Gap Changed
Boise City and Panama City-Panama City Beach share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap narrowed, moving from 1.5 to 1.1 RPP points. Boise City remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Services changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 7.9 points between the first and latest shared releases (25.3 to 17.4 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | Boise City RPP | Panama City-Panama City Beach RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 95.3 | 96.7 | 1.5 points Panama City-Panama City Beach higher |
| 2012 | 96.7 | 96.8 | 0.1 points Panama City-Panama City Beach higher |
| 2016 | 93.2 | 95.2 | 2.1 points Panama City-Panama City Beach higher |
| 2020 | 93.6 | 94.6 | 0.9 points Panama City-Panama City Beach higher |
| 2024 | 98.4 | 97.3 | 1.1 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.
Salary Equivalents
What a salary in Boise City would need to be in Panama City-Panama City Beach for the same purchasing power:
| In Boise City | In Panama City-Panama City Beach | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $49,444 | $-556 |
| $75,000 | $74,165 | $-835 |
| $100,000 | $98,887 | $-1,113 |
| $150,000 | $148,331 | $-1,669 |
$ in Boise City = in Panama City-Panama City Beach
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (98.4 → 97.3), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Panama City-Panama City Beach more expensive than Boise City?
Panama City-Panama City Beach is 1.1% less expensive than Boise City. The overall cost index is 97.3 vs 98.4 (national average = 100).
What salary in Panama City-Panama City Beach equals $100K in Boise City?
A $100,000 salary in Boise City has the same purchasing power as $98,887 in Panama City-Panama City Beach. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Boise City and Panama City-Panama City Beach?
Rents in Boise City are indexed at 105.6 while Panama City-Panama City Beach is at 96.4 (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.